Daily Archives: January 23, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. January 23, 2014

Only one C-class flare was reported during the past 24 hours: a C1.3 flare peaking at 19:05 UT yesterday in the Catania sunspot group 15 (NOAA AR 1955). We expect flaring activity on the low C-level, in particular in Catania sunspot groups 14 and 17 (NOAA ARs 1957 and 1959 respectively) that keep the beta-gamma configuration of the photospheric magnetic field. The Earth is currently inside a solar wind flow with an intermediate speed (around 450 km/s). The interplanetary magnetic field magnitude is average (around 5 nT), so we expect quiet geomagnetic conditions.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 01/23/14
Time UT: 17:00
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

Double Cluster in Perseus

Image Credit & Copyright: Fabian NeyerExplanation: This lovely starfield spans some seven full moons (about 3.5 degrees) across the heroic northern constellation of Perseus. Just right of center it holds the famous pair of open or galactic star clusters, h and Chi Perseii. Also cataloged as NGC 869 (right) and NGC 884, both clusters are about 7,000 light-years away and contain stars much younger and hotter than the Sun. Separated by only a few hundred light-years, the clusters are both 13 million years young based on the ages of their individual stars, evidence that they were likely a product of the same star-forming region. Always a rewarding sight in binoculars, the Double Cluster is even visible to the unaided eye from dark locations. Not seen in binoculars though, and not often depicted in telescopic images of the region are faint clouds of reddish ionized hydrogen gas found throughout this remarkable cosmic skyscape. A color composite, the image includes narrowband data to enhance emission from the hydrogen clouds. Visible toward the upper left of the wide field of view is another, smaller open star cluster, NGC 957, also of similar age, distance, and possibly related to the more famous Double Cluster in Perseus.

NASA APOD 23-Jan-2014

M101: the Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 21 million light-years (sixmegaparsecs) away in the constellation Ursa Major, first discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, and communicated to Charles Messier who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries. On August 24, 2011, a Type Ia supernova, SN 2011fe, was discovered in M101.

M101 is a relatively large galaxy compared to the Milky Way. With a diameter of 170,000 light-years it is seventy percent larger than the Milky Way. It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small bulge of about 3 billion solar masses.

Another remarkable property of this galaxy is its huge and extremely bright H II regions, of which a total of about 3,000 can be seen on photographs. H II regions usually accompany the enormous clouds of high density molecular hydrogen gas contracting under their own gravitational force where stars form. H II regions are ionized by large numbers of extremely bright and hot young stars.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Explore Scientific ED102 APO
Imaging cameras: QSI 583 wsg
Mounts: Astro-Physics Mach 1 GTO
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Explore Scientific ED102 APO
Guiding cameras: SX Lodestar
Software: Maxim DL 5 MaximDL 5, Pleiades Astrophoto Pixinsight 1.8, Adobe Photoshop 6 CS
Filters: Astrodon LRGB CCD Imaging Filters (E-Series), Gen2

Autor: Daniele Malleo

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

23 January 2014

We select the best works of amateur astrophotographers with details of equipment, shooting processing etc.

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