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Latest Posts by chbnb

California Nebula and the Pleiades

Rho Ophiuchi over Mule Ears © astronycc

Quiver Tree Forest… Despite the light pollution of neighboring city Keetmanshoop, the Milky Way was bright enough so one can say it’s a bortle 1-2 sky, which is actually the case everywhere in Namibia. (gear in tags, settings and process here )

eg_astrophotography

Juno Passes Jupiter

M104, Sombrero Galaxy

IC 405, Flaming Star

2025 January 27

Pleiades over Half Dome Image Credit & Copyright: Dheera Venkatraman

Explanation: Stars come in bunches. The most famous bunch of stars on the sky is the Pleiades, a bright cluster that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. The Pleiades lies only about 450 light years away, formed about 100 million years ago, and will likely last about another 250 million years. Our Sun was likely born in a star cluster, but now, being about 4.5 billion years old, its stellar birth companions have long since dispersed. The Pleiades star cluster is pictured over Half Dome, a famous rock structure in Yosemite National Park in California, USA. The featured image is a composite of 28 foreground exposures and 174 images of the stellar background, all taken from the same location and by the same camera on the same night in October 2019. After calculating the timing of a future juxtaposition of the Pleiades and Half Dome, the astrophotographer was unexpectedly rewarded by an electrical blackout, making the background sky unusually dark.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250127.html

2025 January 24

Comet G3 ATLAS: a Tail and a Telescope Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS has made a dramatic appearance in planet Earth’s skies. A visitor from the distant Oort Cloud, the comet reached its perihelion on January 13. On January 19, the bright comet was captured here from ESO Paranal Observatory in the Atacama desert in Chile. Sporting spectacular sweeping dust tails, this comet ATLAS is setting in the southern hemisphere twilight and was clearly visible to the unaided eye. In the foreground is the closed shell of one of the observatory’s famous auxiliary telescopes. Still wowing southern hemisphere observers, the comet’s bright coma has become diffuse, its icy nucleus apparently disintegrating following its close approach to the Sun.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250124.html

Petr Horálek on Instagram

Sh2-224 // Alfred Leitgeb

Orion’s Cradle

Credits: Tony Hallas

Star cluster NGC 2264, also called the "Christmas tree cluster," is an array of young stars that are between one and five million years old. We know what you're thinking: young?! For a little comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old about 1,000 times older than the stars in this cluster.

This image combines data from Chandra (red, green, and blue) with optical data (green and white) captured by astrophotographer Michael Clow with his telescope in Arizona in November 2024.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand

By Smithsonian and NASAChandraXray

IC 1805, Within The Heart

Clearest image of Phobos ever taken, Moon of Mars

Clearest Image ever taken of Mars’ North Pole. Yes that’s water ice.

NGC 2264, Christmas Tree Cluster

Stunning New Images of Jupiter From NASA’s Juno Spacecraft (read article here)

Within Carina

Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud ©

Canaries Sky

Credits: A. Vannini, G. Li Causi, A. Ricciardi, A. Garatti

Horsehead and Orion Nebulae

Credits: Dale J. Martin, Massapoag Pond Obs.

Heart and Soul Nebulae

The Fish Head Nebula, NGC 896 // Frank Dibbell

"The Universe Tree" in Frutillar, Chile // Tomás Andonie (a 19-year-old!)

Orion rising over Death Valley // Brett Nickeson

A few easily-spotted nebulae include Barnard's Loop and the Orion Nebula

Galactic center of Milky Way © cosmic_background

Cepheus. Cosmic Zoo

Focus on a small portion of the Milky Way, above Canadian forest, August 2019, showing North American nebula and part the Cygnus constellation. Taken with Nikon D750, 50mm, ISO1600, 10s. I did not have a tripod, it was tricky to keep the camera still.

The Moon... revealing its scars, its colours, its history, its strength, its hypnotic beauty, its pride, its majesty... Taken from my backyard, South of France.

Bright and cold night sky captured with my good old galaxy S21, from Aosta, Italy. We can see Mars, Orion and the Pléiades.