Daily Archives: February 18, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. February 17, 2014

Several C-class flares in past 24h. The strongest one was a C6.6 flare peaking at 03:04 UT. This region, and NOAA AR 1974, will likely produce more C-class and probably M-class flares. A new region rotating over the east limb is producing C-class flares also. A halo CME was first seen at 13:25 UT on February 16. This CME was a backsided event and not expected to arrive to the Earth. A C3.4 flare from NOAA AR 1977 that peaked at 14:00 UT on February 16 was related to a filament eruption, but no corresponding CME could be detected.Geomagnetic conditions have ranged from quiet to unsettled in past 24h. The possible arrival of a CME from February 13 and the fast solar wind from a coronal hole in the northern hemisphere may rise conditions to active levels.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 100 frames
Date: 02/17/14
Time UT: 15:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

Crossing Dingo Gap on Mars

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS; Digital processing: Damia Bouic

An important threshold on Mars has now been crossed. Landing in mid-2012, the Curiosity rover is searching for clues of whether life could ever have existed on the red planet. Recent findings of Curiosity include evidence for an ancient (but now dried) freshwater lake, and the non-detection of the biomarker methane in the Martian atmosphere. To continue its investigation, the car-sized rover is on an expedition to roll up Mt. Sharp, the central peak of the large crater in which it landed. Life might have shown preference for water that once ran down the Martian mountain. Two weeks ago, to avoid more dangerous and rocky terrain, Curiosity was directed to roll across a one-meter high sand dune that blocked a useful entrance to Mt. Sharp. Just after the short trip over Dingo Gap was successful, the robotic rover took the above image showing the now-traversed sand mound covered with its wheel tracks.

NASA APOD 18-feb-2014

M33: The Triangulum Galaxy

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598, and is sometimes informally referred to as the Pinwheel Galaxy, a nickname it shares with Messier 101. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and about 44 other smaller galaxies. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.

Under exceptionally good viewing conditions with no light pollution, the Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with the naked eye. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed without the aid of a telescope. Being a diffuse object, its visibility is strongly affected by small amounts of light pollution. It ranges from easily visible by direct vision in dark skies to a difficult averted vision object in rural or suburban skies. For this reason, Triangulum is one of the critical sky marks of the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Planewave Instruments CDK 17
Imaging cameras: Apogee U16M
Mounts: Software Bisque Paramount ME
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Planewave Instruments CDK 17
Guiding cameras: SBIG STi
Software: Nebulosity, MaximDL 5
Filters: AstroDon Tru-Balance E-Series Blue, AstroDon Tru-Balance E-Series Luminance, AstroDon Tru-Balance E-Series Red, AstroDon Tru-Balance E-Series Green
Accessories: Astrodon Monster MOAG
Dates: Sept. 11, 2013
Frames: 22×900″
Integration: 5.5 hours

Autor: Craig Prost

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

18 February 2014

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

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