*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

New Horizons sends back a picture of "Wright Mons", a possible volcano on Pluto. This feature was informally named by the New Horizons team in honour of the Wright brothers.:

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Wright Mons in Color. This composite image of a possible ice volcano on Pluto includes pictures taken by the New Horizons spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015, from a range of about 30,000 miles (48,000 kilometers), showing features as small as 1,500 feet (450 meters) across. Sprinkled across the LORRI mosaic is enhanced color data from the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), from a range of 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometers) and at a resolution of about 2,100 feet (650 meters) per pixel. The entire scene is 140 miles (230 kilometers) across.

Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
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Forgot to post, woke up early Saturday morning to drive my scope down the road to hopefully get a picture of Saturn, finally did!

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MAVEN's Mars atmospheric coverage:


MAVEN’s orbit gives it the most comprehensive view of the Martian atmosphere to date. Circling the red planet every 4.5 hours on an elliptical path, MAVEN passes close to the north and south poles at an inclination of 75 degrees. This allows MAVEN to gather a north-south swath of data with each pass. At the same time, Mars itself rotates eastward beneath MAVEN, giving the orbiter longitudinal coverage. The combination of MAVEN’s orbit and Mars’ daily rotation provides a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere every day.

While previous Mars orbiters have peered down at the planet's surface, MAVEN is spending part of its time gazing at the stars, observing the Martian atmosphere through a series of stellar occultations. As Mars rolls beneath MAVEN, due to the spacecraft's own orbital motion, background stars rise and set behind the planet. Their light dims as it passes through the tenuous atmosphere, with specific gases absorbing specific wavelengths. MAVEN uses its Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph to break apart this light and see which wavelengths are absorbed, allowing it to determine atmospheric composition at varying altitudes.
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Zoom in onto Trumpler 14. One of the largest gatherings of hot, massive and bright stars in the Milky Way, this cluster houses some of the most luminous stars in our entire galaxy:

 
Five planets align in dawn sky:

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From now until about Feb. 20, early risers will stand a good chance of seeing five planets simultaneously in the pre-dawn sky: Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter (technically six, if you count the Earth you're standing on). Those planets should be visible to the naked eye. Of course, if you happen to have binoculars or a telescope, you'll get an even better view.


The last appearance by the quintet on one nighttime stage was in December 2004 and January 2005. If you miss this month's viewing opportunity, the five will be back in the evening sky in late July through mid-August, but Mercury and Venus won't be easily visible from northern latitudes.


If you go outside during the five-planet display, and if weather conditions are favorable, here's what you should be able to see: Jupiter will rise in the evening, then Mars will pop up after midnight, followed by Saturn, brilliant Venus, and finally, Mercury. All five will be visible from southeast to southwest between 6 and 6:30 a.m. local time, over the span. Earth’s moon will also join the cosmic display from Jan. 23 to Feb. 7. During that time, the moon will shift from the west-northwest to east-southeast and will be visible near the five planets and some stars.

During the day and night between Jan. 27 and 28, the morning view of the moon will switch from right of Jupiter to left of Jupiter. Then, on Feb. 1, the moon will be visible near Mars, followed by an appearance near Saturn on Feb. 3. On Feb. 6, the moon, Mercury and dazzling Venus will appear in a triangular formation before sunrise.
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:)
 
Astronomers find six new millisecond pulsars.

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NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has once again proven that it is an excellent tool to search for rotating neutron stars emitting beams of electromagnetic radiation, known as pulsars. A team of astronomers, led by H. Thankful Cromartie of the University of Virginia, has recently used the 305-meter Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to observe unidentified sources of gamma rays detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi spacecraft. As it turns out, six of these objects indicated by LAT are rapidly rotating neutron stars, with periods of a few thousandths of a second, called millisecond pulsars (MSPs). The scientists published their results online on Jan. 20 on the arXiv pre-print server.
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Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-astronomers-millisecond-pulsars.html#jCp
 
Is there a calendar fir things to keep your eye out for this year, visible from auk.

Anyone know any good guides on how to take long exposure star photos, especially with something lit up in the foreground, like a tent or tree etc.

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Glaucus said:
Is there a calendar fir things to keep your eye out for this year, visible from auk.

Anyone know any good guides on how to take long exposure star photos, especially with something lit up in the foreground, like a tent or tree etc.
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Its trial and error and certain cameras are better at it than others. That and you need a REALLY dark place to get it properly....Basically, if you can't see the milky way in some description with just your eyes it will be hard to get.

I've tried near where I live (not many lights on the streets at all) and can't do it yet, but that may be the limitations of my camera.
 
Cosimo said:
Five planets align in dawn sky:



:)
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Yesterday morning was awesome for viewing it - very crisp and clear around 6am - unfortunately Mars was behind the moon or so close to the moon it wasn't possible to distinguish it but Jupiter was very bright (looked about 4x the size of the other stars) and even with the naked eye could just about make out some detail rather than just being a blob of light.
 
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