Daily Archives: June 17, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. June 17, 2014

The strongest flare of the past 24 hours is the C4.7 flare peaking at 05:10 UT today in the NOAA AR 2087 (Catania sunspot group 81). Although this group has the beta configuration of its photospheric magnetic field,
emergence of new photospheric magnetic flux indicates that this active region may still produce more flares. NOAA AR 2089 (Catania number 82) has beta-gamma-delta configuration of its photospheric magnetic field, but it is currently producing only weak and confined C-class flares. We expect the flaring activity to continue on the C-level, with an M-class flare possible but not very likely. The Earth is currently inside a slow (around 360 km/s) solar wind flow with slightly elevated (around 6 nT) interplanetary magnetic field magnitude. The geomagnetic conditions are quiet and are expected to remain so.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 06/17/14
Time UT: 16:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

Observatory Sponli

V838 Light Echo: The Movie

Image Credit: ESA, NASA, Hubble Space Telescope; Music: The Driving Force (Jingle Punks)

What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon suddenly became one of the brightest stars in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. Then, just a few months later, it faded. A stellar flash like this has never been seen before — supernovas and novas expel a tremendous amount of matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash appeared to expel some material into space, what is seen in the above eight-frame movie, interpolated for smoothness, is actually an outwardly moving light echo of the flash. The actual time-span of the above movie is from 2002, when the flash was first recorded, to 2006. In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant ellipsoids in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. Currently, the leading model for V838’s outburst was the orbital decay and subsequent merging of two relatively normal stars. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of Monoceros, while the largest light echo above spans about six light years in diameter.

NASA APOD 17-Jun-14

IC 405 & IC410 in the constellation of Auriga

The Flaming Star Nebula officially known as IC 405 (upper-center), lies about 1500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of Auriga.
One and a half degree East from the Flaming Star Nebula is located IC 410, a region of faint nebulosity surrounding the open star cluster NGC 1893. The cluster itself is small and located just below center, underneath the central dust region of the nebula. This nebula contains complex wisps of gas and is a beautiful target for astrophotography. IC 410 is much more distant, 12,000 light years away, and much larger, 100 light years across, than the Flaming Star Nebula.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM
Imaging cameras: Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Mounts: Celestron CGEM Hypertuned
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Orion ShortTube 80
Guiding cameras: Orion StarShoot Autoguider
Focal reducers: Astro-Tech AT2FF
Software: Scott Davis AAPPS, Luc Coiffier’s DeepSkyStacker, Adobe Photoshop CS6, BinaryRivers BackyardEOS
Filters: One-Shot Color, Astronomik 6nm Ha Clip-In Filter
Dates: Dec. 31, 2013, Jan. 2, 2014, Jan. 4, 2014, Jan. 5, 2014
Frames:
Astronomik 6nm Ha Clip-In Filter: 104×300″ ISO1600
One-Shot Color: 59×180″ ISO1600
Integration: 11.6 hours
Darks: ~27
Flats: ~47
Flat darks: ~47
Bias: ~47

Author: Scott Davis
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
17 June 2014

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