Astronomy picture of the day…

Not as interesting as the others but hey, thats another thing that i learnt today

2009 September 4

6 Years of Saturn

Credit & Copyright: Alan Friedman

Explanation: Today, planet Earth passes through the plane of Saturn’s rings. From the perspective of earthbound astronomers, Saturn’s rings will be edge-on. The problem is, Saturn itself is now very close to the Sun, low on horizon after sunset, so good telescopic images will be difficult to come by. Still, this composite of Saturn views taken from 2004 - 2009 (lower right to upper left) illustrates the change in ring tilt over the last six years and includes a nearly edge-on ring view, based on images captured earlier this year. While Saturn’s south pole is clearly seen in the sequence, particularly at the lower right, it will be hidden in the coming years. Saturn’s north pole will be increasingly visible, along with the tilting rings, as the planet emerges this fall in the predawn sky.

I think i read about this in the papers. Great stuff rider!

2009 September 5

Supernova Remnant E0102-72

Credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / MIT / D.Dewey et al., NASA / CXC / SAO / J.DePasquale;
Optical - NASA / STScI

Explanation: The expanding debris cloud from the explosion of a massive star is captured in this multiwavelength composite, combining x-ray and optical images from the Chandra and Hubble telescopes. Identified as E0102-72, the supernova remnant lies about 190,000 light-years away in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud. A strong cosmic source of x-rays, E0102 was imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory shortly after its launch in 1999. In celebration of Chandra’s 10th anniversary, this colorful view of E0102 and its environs was created, including additional Chandra data. An analysis of all the data indicates that the overall shape of E0102 is most likely a cylinder that is viewed end-on rather than a spherical bubble. The intriguing result implies that the massive star’s explosion has produced a shape similar to what is seen in some planetary nebulae associated with lower mass stars. At the distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, this field of view spans about 150 light-years.

2009 September 6

CMBR Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe

Credit: DMR, COBE, NASA, Four-Year Sky Map

Explanation: Our Earth is not at rest. The Earth moves around the Sun. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group of Galaxies. The Local Group falls toward the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. But these speeds are less than the speed that all of these objects together move relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). In the above all-sky map from the COBE satellite, radiation in the Earth’s direction of motion appears blueshifted and hence hotter, while radiation on the opposite side of the sky is redshifted and colder. The map indicates that the Local Group moves at about 600 kilometers per second relative to this primordial radiation. This high speed was initially unexpected and its magnitude is still unexplained. Why are we moving so fast? What is out there?

The supernova remnant looks sickk as man!
Still cant make head or tail of the CMBR dipole

A few pictures I took from the Lake Tekapo observatory in NZ, July this year;

Stars shining over the mountains, The bright light in the middle is Jupiter.

Night sky with Lake Tekapo township in lights

Magellan Clouds and Lake Tekapo township

Not an Anstronommy photo but looked cool all the same,

Those are beautiful starsky! love the last one with the townlights

Nice photos starsky, thanks for sharing. The 3rd photo is my favourite, looks awesome! 

I edited your images to 800 pixels so they fit the page.

Thanks for that, It was the first time I had tried taking pictures of the stars, was a lot of fun and would have tried to do more but it was a balmy -1 degree and I had to keep taking off my gloves to set the camera

2009 September 7

Jupiter Over the Mediterranean

Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN)

Explanation: This vacation included a sight to remember. Pictured above, a picturesque starscape capped a serene seascape as seen from Turkey this past August. In the above digitally stitched panorama, the Gelidonya Lighthouse shines in the foreground before a calm Mediterranean Sea. On the left, Jupiter is the brightest point in the image and since on the same side of the Sun as the Earth, was near its yearly brightest. Glowing just shy of magnitude -3, Jupiter was brighter than any star in the sky, and brighter even than Mars was during its famously bright opposition of 2003 August. On the right, the band of the Milky Way Galaxy fades into distant atmospheric haze above the Jupiter is nearing the closest part of its elliptical orbit to the Sun and so will appear even brighter during its next opposition in 2010 September.

2009 September 8

Unexpected Impact on Jupiter

Credit: ALPO, Theo Ramakers

Explanation: Two months ago, something unexpected hit Jupiter. First discovered by an amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley on 2009 July 19, the impact was quickly confirmed and even imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope the very next day. Many of the world’s telescopes then zoomed in on our Solar System’s largest planet to see the result. Some of these images have been complied into the above animation. Over the course of the last month and a half, the above time-lapse sequence shows the dark spot—first created when Jupiter was struck—deforming and dissipating as Jupiter’s clouds churned and Jupiter rotated. It is now thought that a small comet—perhaps less than one kilometer across—impacted Jupiter on or before 2009 July 19. Although initially expected to be visible for only a week, astronomers continue to track atmospheric remnants of the impact for new information about winds and currents in Jupiter’s thick atmosphere.

2009 September 9

Star Trails Over Oregon

Credit & Copyright: Joshua Bury

Explanation: As the Earth spins on its axis, the sky seems to rotate around us. This motion, called diurnal motion, produces the beautiful concentric trails traced by stars during time exposures. Partial-circle star trails are pictured above over Grants Pass, Oregon, USA last month. Near the middle of the circles is the North Celestial Pole (NCP), easily identified as the point in the sky at the center of all the star trail arcs. The star Polaris, commonly known as the North Star, made the very short bright circle near the NCP. About 12,000 years ago, the bright star Vega was the North Star, and in about 14,000 years, as the Earth’s spin axis slowly continues to precess, Vega will become the North Star again.

Wow… thats one sweet panorama!
What causes the whole sky to be purple?

Sorry, been at the snow for a few days. I will update this thread later today.