Monthly Archives: February 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 28, 2013

The solar disk remains covered with a large number of sunspot groups, many of them undergoing magnetic reconfigurations and producing non-stop C-class flares. The most noteworthy regions are AR1987-Cat49 (beta-gamma), AR1990-Cat52 (beta-delta), AR1991-Cat59 (Feb 28 M1.1 flare), AR1982-Cat 46
(beta-gamma). As a consequence we expect M-class flaring activity but an isolated X-class flare also remains possible. AR1982-Cat 46 will rotate behind the solar West limb in the coming 48 hours, a sharp drop in the
F10.7 radio flux can thus be expected.We expect continued episodes of K=4 activity during the next 24 hours as a consequence of a fast solar wind stream from a recurrent coronal hole. ACE low energy proton fluxes also
suggest that a new shock might arrive in the coming 12 hours.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 02/28/14
Time UT: 15:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

Möbius Arch Moonrise

The waning gibbous moon (95% illumination, 2 days past full) is diffused by thin clouds as it rises over the Alabama Hills and the famed Möbius Arch.

Image Credit & Copyright: Laurie Hatch

Only two days past full, February’s moon shines through thin clouds, rising on the left in this fisheye night skyscape. The moonlight illuminates a weathered, rounded foreground in the Alabama Hills, conveniently located east of Mt. Whitney along the Sierra Nevada range in California, USA, planet Earth. Orion the Hunter stands at the right, a familiar northern winter constellation. Bright Jupiter, the solar system’s ruling gas giant, is near center at the top of the frame. Below Jupiter, Sirius, alpha star of the Big Dog, poses above a bowed and twisted landform known as Möbius Arch, its curve reminiscent of the mathematically famoussurface with only one side. Of course, instead of using rock, wind, and weather, a Möbius strip is easier to make with paper, scissors, and tape.

NASA APOD 28-feb-2014

NGC 7293: Eye of God

NGC 7293 , also known as The Helix, The Helix Nebula, is a large planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius. Discovered byKarl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. The estimated distance is about 215 parsecs or 700 light-years. It is similar in appearance to the Cat’s Eye Nebula and the Ring Nebula, whose size, age, and physical characteristics are similar to the Dumbbell Nebula, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial viewing angle. The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the “Eye of God” in pop culture.

The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula, or ‘planetary’ formed at the end of a star’s evolution. Gases from the star in the surrounding space appear, from our vantage point, as if we are looking down a helix structure. The remnant central stellar core, known as a planetary nebula nucleus or PNN, is destined to become a white dwarf star. The observed glow of the central star is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly fluoresce.

The Helix Nebula in the constellation of Aquarius lies about 700 light-years away, spanning about 0.8 parsec or 2.5 light-years.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi TOA 150
Imaging cameras: Nikon D800 Mod
Mounts: Takahashi EM-400 Temma2
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Vixen FL70S
Guiding cameras: Fishcamp Starfish
Focal reducers: Takahashi TOA 67 Flattener
Software: DeepSkyStacker, Adobe Photoshop CS5
Dates: Aug. 9, 2013
Locations: Mt. Ho-Huan (Taiwan)
Frames: 40×600″ ISO200
Integration: 6.7 hours

Autor: Wei-Hao Wang

28 February 2014

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

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 27, 2013

Given the large number of complex, active regions on the disk, solar activity has been moderate. The strongest flare was an M1.1 flare from NOAA AR 1982, now approaching the solar West limb. For the coming days, the largest chance for major flaring comes from active region NOAA1990-Cat52 and NOAA1991-Cat59. In particular NOAA1990-Cat52 (the source of the X4.9 flare of Feb 25) is now categorised as beta-delta and is slowly increasing in size.At the time of this writing, the expected shock from the CME following the X4.9 flare has not arrived yet. ACE measurement of low energy proton fluxes are rising since Feb 26 22:00, therefore suggesting the shock is near. We expect thus active geomagnetic conditions later today. They will continue into tomorrow Feb 28 as we expect the influence of the fast solar wind stream from a (small) coronal hole.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 02/27/14
Time UT: 15:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

Daytime Moon Meets Morning Star

Image Credit & Copyright: Cui Yongjiang and Shi Zexing

Venus now appears as planet Earth’s brilliant morning star standing above the eastern horizon before dawn. For most, the silvery celestial beacon rose in a close pairing with an old crescent Moon on February 26. But seen from locations in western Africa before sunrise, the lunar crescent actually occulted or passed in front of Venus, also in a crescent phase. Farther to the east, the occultation occurred during daylight hours. In fact, this telescopic snapshot of the dueling crescents was captured just before the occultation began under an afternoon’s crystal clear skies from Yunnan Province, China. The unforgettable scene was easily visible to the naked eye in broad daylight.

NASA APOD 27-feb-2014

Trifid Nebula, Lagoon nebula, and NGC 6559 in Sagittarius

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi Epsilon 180ED
Imaging cameras: Canon EOS 5D Mark II MOD
Mounts: Takahashi EM-400 Temma2
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Vixen FL70S
Guiding cameras: Fishcamp Starfish
Software: DeepSkyStacker, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Auriga Imaging RegiStar
Filters: Infrared 825 nm , UV/IR-cut
Dates: June 26, 2012
Locations: Mt. Ho-Huan (Taiwan)
Frames:
Infrared 825 nm : 12×300″ ISO1600
UV/IR-cut: 16×180″ ISO800
Integration: 1.8 hours

Autor: Wei-Hao Wang

27 February 2014

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

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 26, 2013

Solar activity has calmed down since the X-class firework of yesterday. Flaring activity in the past 24 hours has been at the C5 level in active regions NOAA1986-Cat48 and NOAA1989-Cat50. For the first region, the activity corresponds to a (recurrently) activating filament which we expect to erupt at some stage. Major (M or X class flaring) flaring potential remains in various active regions, in particular NOAA1982-46, NOAA1987-Cat54 and NOAA1990-Cat52. The CME associated with the X4.9 flare of Feb 25 00:49 expanded to a full halo CME. Propagation speeds above 1500 km/s were measured. Culgoora Observatory observed type II radio bursts with speeds of 2000 km/s and 700 km/s. As this CME was not completely Earth-directed, we expect that only a glancing blow of the shock will arrive at the Earth, early Feb 27. Soon thereafter (Feb 28 late onwards) we also expect the influence of the fast wind stream from a small coronal hole that crossed central meridian mid Feb 24. As a consequence, we expect episodes of active geomagnetic conditions from early Feb 27 onwards for about 48 hours.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 02/26/14
Time UT: 14:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

Aurora over New Zealand

Image Credit & Copyright: David Weir (Earth and Sky Ltd.)

Sometimes the more you look at an image, the more you see. Such may be the case for this beautiful nighttime panorama taken last week in New Zealand. Visible right off, on the far left, are common clouds, slightly altered by the digital fusion of combining 11 separate 20-second exposures. More striking, perhaps, is the broad pink aurora that dominates the right part of the image, a less common auroral color that is likely tinted by excited oxygen atoms high in Earth’s atmosphere. Keep looking and you might notice a bright light just beyond the mountain on the left. That is the rising Moon — and an even closer look will reveal faint crepuscular raysemanating from it. Musing over the image center may cause you to notice the central band of the Milky Way Galaxy which here appears to divide, almost vertically, the left clouds from the right aurora. Inspecting the upper right of the image reveals a fuzzy patch, high in the sky, that is the Small Magellanic Cloud. Numerous stars discretely populate the distant background. Back on Earth, the image foreground features two domes of the Mt. John University Observatory and a camera tripod looking to capture much of this scene over a serene Lake Tekapo.

APOD NASA 26-feb-2014

NGC 6618: the Swan Nebula

The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, Lobster Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula (catalogued asMessier 17 or M17 and as NGC 6618) is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745.Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is located in the rich starfields of the Sagittarius area of the Milky Way. The Omega Nebula is between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years from Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of interstellar matterof which this nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses. The total mass of the Omega Nebula is an estimated 800 solar masses.

It is considered one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy.Its local geometry is similar to the Orion Nebula except that it is viewed edge-on rather than face-on.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Celestron C8 SCT
Imaging cameras: Nikon D5000
Mounts: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Goto
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Orion ShortTube 80
Guiding cameras: QHYCCD QHY5L-II Mono
Focal reducers: Celestron f/6.3 Focal Reducer/Corrector
Software: DeepSkyStacker, photoshop
Dates: July 7, 2013
Frames: 20×60″
Integration: 0.3 hours

Autor: Leandro Fornaziero

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

26 February 2014

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

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 25, 2013

The X4.9 flare of Feb 25 00:49 produced rising proton flux levels and a CME. The proton flux levels will cross the 10 pfu threshold for >10 MeV particles in the coming minutes. Meanwhile, incoming data revealed that the CME expanded to a full halo CME with a propagation speeds above 1500 km/s. Culgoora Observatory observed type II radio bursts with speeds of 2000 km/s and 700 km/s. As a consequence, we expect
disturbed geomagnetic conditions but it remains hard to predict timing and magnitude as the CME
has only a minor component in the direction of the Earth.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 02/25/14
Time UT: 14:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts: