Daily Archives: February 23, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. February 23, 2014

Solar activity has been dominated by NOAA AR 1982 with several C-class flares and by recurrent AR NOAA 1967 slightly behind the east limb. This AR produced a long duration M1.0 flare with peak at 06:10 UT, related to a non-Earth directed CME. A second partial halo came from this AR at 16:00 UT on February 22, also not expected to affect the Earth. As this region rotates into view in next 24 – 48 h solar activity is expected to increase. A third partial halo CME was seen at 12:12 UT on February 22 by LASCO-C2, this one corresponded to a backside filament eruption in the south, not Earth directed.A weak transient arrived to ACE around 02:30 UT related most likely to the CMEs of February 20. Bz has been positive until now (with IMF
magnitude close to 12 nT), with solar wind speeds close to 500 km/s, which led to only unsettled conditions so far. The situation may change in the next 24h if Bz turns negative. A small coronal hole could have also an
effect on the geomagnetic conditions by February 24.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 02/23/14
Time UT: 18:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

Cassini Spacecraft Crosses Saturn’s Ring Plane

Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

If this is Saturn, where are the rings? When Saturn’s “appendages” disappeared in 1612, Galileo did not understand why. Later that century, it became understood that Saturn’s unusual protrusions were rings and that when the Earth crosses the ring plane, the edge-on rings will appear to disappear. This is because Saturn’s rings are confined to a plane many times thinner, in proportion, than a razor blade. In modern times, therobot Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn now also crosses Saturn’s ring plane. A series of plane crossing images from 2005 February was dug out of the vast online Cassini raw image archive by interested Spanish amateur Fernando Garcia Navarro. Pictured above, digitally cropped and set in representative colors, is the striking result. Saturn’s thin ring plane appears in blue, bands and clouds in Saturn’s upper atmosphere appear in gold. Details of Saturn’s rings can be seen in the high dark shadows across the top of this image, taken back in 2005. Moons appear as bumps in the rings.

NASA APOD 23-feb-2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. February 22, 2014

Only C1 flares in past 24h. NOAA AR 1982 has still potential for M-class flares. Geomagnetic conditions have ranged from unsettled to active due to weak but long lasting negative Bz periods. An increase to minor storm conditions is expected with the arrival of CMEs from February 19 and 20.

SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 02/22/14
Time UT: 18:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

IC405: Flaming Star Nebula in Ha OIII

IC 405 (also known as the Flaming Star Nebula, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31) is an emission/reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga, surrounding the bluish star AE Aurigae. It shines at magnitude +6.0. Its celestial coordinates are RA 05^h 16.2^m dec +34° 28′. It surrounds the irregular variable star AE Aurigae and is located near the emission nebula IC 410, the open clusters M38 and M36, and the naked-eye K-class star Hassaleh. The nebula measures approximately 37.0′ x 19.0′, and lies about 1,500 light-years away. It is believed that the proper motion of the central star can be traced back to the Orion’s Belt area. The nebula is about 5 light-years across.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Selfmade Super Astrograph 8″ f4
Imaging cameras: SBIG ST- 8300M
Guiding cameras: ALccd5-IIm
Software: Fitswork, Adobe Photoshop CS5
Filters: Baader Planetariun OIII 8.5nm, Baader Planetariun Ha 7nm
Accessories: TS 9mm OAG, Pal Gyulai Komakorrektor
Dates: Feb. 4, 2014
Frames: 8×900″
Integration: 2.0 hours

Autor: Petko Marinov

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

23 February 2014

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

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