Daily Archives: May 28, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. May 28, 2014

There are currently 6 sunspot groups visible on the solar disk, all having simple magnetic configurations. NOAA 2065 produced the strongest flare from just behind the west limb. This C4 flare peaked on 27 May at 14:15UT and was associated to a jetlike CME. It had a speed of early 300 km/s, but was not directed to Earth. A new sunspot region developed southeast of NOAA 2073 early on 28 May. There remains a chance on a C-class flare. Solar wind speed gradually increased from 300 to 350 km/s. It is currently stable at 340 km/s, with Bz varying between +6 and -5 nT. The geomagnetic field was quiet. A small coronal hole that passed the central meridian on 25-26 May could influence the geomagnetic field starting late on 29 May.Geomagnetic conditions are expected to be quiet, though locally a brief active episode on 29-30 May is not excluded.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 05/28/14
Time UT: 19:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer

The Cone Nebula from Hubble

Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA – Processing & Licence: Judy Schmidt

Stars are forming in the gigantic dust pillar called the Cone Nebula. Cones, pillars, and majestic flowing shapes abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are buffeted by energetic winds from newborn stars. The Cone Nebula, a well-known example, lies within the bright galactic star-forming region NGC 2264. The Cone was captured in unprecedented detail in this close-up composite of several observations from the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. While the Cone Nebula, about 2,500 light-years away in Monoceros, is around 7 light-years long, the region pictured here surrounding the cone’s blunted head is a mere 2.5 light-years across. In our neck of the galaxy that distance is just over half way from the Sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, the Alpha Centauri star system. The massive star NGC 2264 IRS, seen by Hubble’s infrared camera in 1997, is the likely source of the wind sculpting the Cone Nebula and lies off the top of the image. The Cone Nebula’s reddish veil is produced by glowing hydrogen gas.

NASA APOD 28-May-14

Spiral galaxy NGC 1097

NGC 1097 is a barred spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. It was discovered by William Herschel on 9 October 1790. Three supernovae (SN 1992bd, SN 1999eu, and SN 2003B) have been observed in NGC 1097.

NGC 1097 is also a Seyfert galaxy. Deep photographs revealed four narrow optical jets that appear to emanate from the nucleus. These have been interpreted as manifestations of the (currently weak) active nucleus. Subsequent analysis of the brightest jet’s radio-to-X-ray spectral energy distribution were able to rule out synchrotron and thermal free-free emission. The optical jets are in fact composed of stars. The failure to detect atomic hydrogen gas in the jets (under the assumption that they were an example of tidal tails) using deep 21 cm HI imaging with the Very Large Array radio telescope and numerical simulations led to the current interpretation that the jets are actually the shattered remains of a cannibalized dwarf galaxy.

Like most massive galaxies, NGC 1097 has a supermassive black hole at its center. Around the central black hole is a ring ofstar-forming regions with a network of gas and dust that spirals from the ring to the black hole.

NGC 1097 has two satellite galaxies. Dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 1097A is the larger of the two. It is a peculiar elliptical galaxy that orbits 42,000 light-years from the center of NGC 1097. Dwarf galaxy NGC 1097B (5 x 10⁶ solar masses), the outermost one, was discovered by its HI emission, and appears to be a typical dwarf irregular. Little else is known about it.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Ceravolo 300 Astrograph (f/9)
Imaging cameras: Apogee Alta U16M
Mounts: Astro-Physics AP900
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Ceravolo 300 Astrograph (f/9)
Guiding cameras: Starlight Xpress Lodestar
Software: DC-3 Dreams ACP, Pleaides Astrophoto PixInsight 1.8, Maxim DL
Filters: Astrodon E-series 2 LRGB
Accessories: FLI Atlas focuser
Dates: Nov. 4, 2013
Frames: 88×900″
Integration: 22.0 hours

Author: Rick Stevenson
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 28 May 2014

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