Daily Archives: March 25, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. March 25, 2014

Solar activity has been dominated by minor C-class flares from NOAA ARs 2010 and 2014. These two ARs, and AR 2015, have potential for M-class flares. A rise in the GOES proton levels (10 MeV up to 1 pfu) was seen this morning, this could correspond with the approaching shock of the CME from March 23 (low energy protons and electrons on ACE show an increase at the same time). It could also be related with activity seen at 05:30 UT around NOAA AR 2015, a flare accompanied by dimmings. There is no LASCO data yet but the COR instruments on STEREO show a CME directed towards the west.Geomagnetic conditions are quiet, solar wind speed around 400 km/s, IMF around 5 nT. Conditions may reach minor storm levels with the arrival
of the March 23 CME, expected for early March 26 (midnight).
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 03/25/14
Time UT: 13:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

Orion Nebula in Surrounding Dust

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Fields

Explanation: What surrounds a hotbed of star formation? In the case of the Orion Nebula — dust. The entire Orion field, located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with intricate and picturesque filaments of dust.Opaque to visible light, dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by a strong outer wind of particles. The Trapezium and other forming star clusters are embedded in the nebula. The intricate filaments of dust surrounding M42 and M43 appear gray in the above image, while central glowing gas is highlighted in brown and blue. Over the next few million years much of Orion’s dust will be slowly destroyed by the very stars now being formed, or dispersed into the Galaxy.

NASA APOD 25-Mar-2014

NGC 3324: the Gabriela Mistral Nebula

The Gabriela Mistral Nebula is an emission nebula in Carina. NGC 3324 is an HII region excited by an open star cluster (OCL 819) in its center. It is located about 7,200 light-years away at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) in the southern constellation of Carina. In fact, IC 2599 is the southern part of NGC 3324.

A rich deposit of gas and dust in the NGC 3324 region fuelled a burst of starbirth millions of years ago and led to the creation of several extremely massive and very hot stars. The intense ultraviolet radiation from these hot young stars causes the gas cloud to glow and has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust. In fact the stars are slowly eroding the gas cloud away.

Astronomers often attach nicknames to nebulae based on their shape and their earthly likenesses. The edge of the wall of gas and dust at the right bears a strong resemblance to a human face in profile, with the “bump” in the center corresponding to a nose. So, NGC 3324 is often called the Gabriela Mistral nebula, after the Nobel Prize-winning poet from Chile.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Astro-Physics 152mm f/7.5 Starfire EDF
Imaging cameras: FLI ProLine Proline 16803
Mounts: Software Bisque Paramount MX
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FS-60C
Guiding cameras: Starlight Xpress Superstar
Focal reducers: Astro-Physics AP 4.0″ Field Flattener
Software: PixInsight 1.8, Software Bisque TheSky6 Professional, FocusMax, Cyanogen Maxim DL Pro 5, Photoshop CS Photo Shop CS5, CCD Autopilot 5
Filters: Astrodon E-series LRGB Ha 5nm
Accessories: Sirius Dome
Dates: Feb. 7, 2014
Locations: Sydney Australia
Frames: 22×1200″
Integration: 7.3 hours

Author: David Nguyen

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

25 March 2014

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