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

[Cosimo]

Zoom into the Antennae Galaxies:

Zoom into the Hubble Ultra Deep Field:

 

[Cosimo]

A look at Eta Carinae, a binary system containing the most luminous and massive star within 10,000 light-years:

 

[Cosimo]

In celebration of its upcoming 25th anniversary in April, Hubble has revisited M16 and we have a spectacular new image of the iconic Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation":

 

[phil675]

So I bought some binoculars a while ago to go on holiday with which was great but now I'm not using them because I live in a flat with no garden, when I'm looking out the window or sitting on the balcony with them I get worried that my neighbours will assume I'm peeping through their windows, does anyone else have this problem?

I've been trying to think of somewhere I could go when its dark but there isn't anywhere I can immediately think of that is high up and open.

 

[Cosimo]

Comet Lovejoy taken on Saturday night:

 

[NickK]

Nice sot cosimo.

I have to confess I spent saturday dogfooding my new plugin for TheSkyX.

Here's it focusing:


Next the imaging.. a single sub of 5 minutes, no PA (other than a quick manual by-eye alignment), and no guiding. Scope sat on the garden pier.

Stretched in PI ..

I'll be sorting out the desiccant later today!

 

[Cosimo]

I have to confess I spent saturday dogfooding my new plugin for TheSkyX.

Which version of TheSkyX are you using?

 

[Cosimo]

Rosetta in a 30km orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Taken on 6th January by NavCam:



ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

This four-image montage comprises Rosetta navigation camera images taken from a distance of 27.9 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 6 January. The image resolution is 2.3 m/pixel and the individual 1024 x 1024 frames measure about 2.4 km across.

 

[NickK]

Which version of TheSkyX are you using?

Professional Edition + camera addon.

Only slight grievance is that to the software to assist in polar alignment you need the T-point Addon. However I used David Hulse's Emac software to visually align the mount. I'll create an ST-4 guider cable or a handset cable.

 

[Cosimo]

Tour of Sagittarius A*, the closest black hole to us:

 

[Cosimo]

The Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation:

 

[Cosimo]

So I had a little play with time-lapse over the holiday period...

 

[Glaucus]

Is there any electronic calendars for good viewings for this year? Preferably uk only.

 

[bitslice]

You guys don't know nothing about nothing,
let QVC & Chunky educate your dumb ass.

 

[Cosimo]

The Andromeda galaxy:

 

[Cosimo]

Ten years ago, Jan. 14, 2005, the Huygens probe touched down on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. This new movie depicts the view from Huygens during the last few hours of its historic descent and landing:

 

[TheMightyTen]

So near yet so far

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30784886

I feel sad that Collin Pillinger went to his grave thinking it was a complete failure and not knowing it made it down in one piece and had started to deploy

 

[Cosimo]

As well as the videos here are some pictures taken in Portugal over the holiday period:

Constellation of Orion by MrBlueSky*, on Flickr

Star Trail B&W by MrBlueSky*, on Flickr

Star Trail Fun by MrBlueSky*, on Flickr

 

[Ryan-3]

Nice! I'd recognize the Orion constellation anywhere.

But look how red Betelgeuse is though!

 

[Cosimo]

More star trails from the set....

Star Trail Mini by MrBlueSky*, on Flickr

Star Trail BW2 by MrBlueSky*, on Flickr

Star Trail Comporta by MrBlueSky*, on Flickr