The Pleiades in Formation

The Pleiades are a clustered group of blue bodies visible in the night sky, but I have never seen them clearly due to the vagaries of weather and my position on the earth's surface.

I came across a great shot of them today, and I just have to share it with you. They are central to the image below, and clearly differ in size and brightness from the surrounding bodies.



Can you recall any other names for the Pleiades?


Source:
http://i.imgur.com/UiyMmsM.jpg

Comet Lovejoy

I am sure that we all want to be the ones to witness the passing of named bodies through the sky, or at least I sure do.

Unfortunately, weather, time constraints, and sweet, sweet slumber often get in the way.

Luckily, some people out there are able to brave these difficulties and obtain wicked sweet shots, like this image of the comet Lovejoy in Q2 as it passed across the sky.



Source:
http://imgur.com/KRpouzW

The Horse-Head Nebula

I found this image posted to the Astrophotography forum of Reddit.

A user has taken a photo of the Horse-Head Nebula, and I have the pleasure of sharing the image with you all.

Source:
http://imgur.com/QLXboJ9

Goodnight Moon

 This image was posted to the Astrophotography subreddit from Imgur, showing a low exposure night-time shot of the moon and three visible stars.

Can you identify the constellation?



Source:
http://i.imgur.com/TIHKEJM.jpg

What is the story behind this?

If you are skilled in the arts of identifying points of view, I'd love an assesment of this latest picture.

Posted on imgur, an image hosting site for general use, it seems to depict the night sky with some interference from surface light in the lower left and a number of distant stars and bodies across the remainder of the visual field.

Any Ideas?

Source:
http://i.imgur.com/m8otMYC.jpg

A Pinwheel Galaxy in view

I was browsing AstroBin, and I found a user had submitted an image of a pinwheel galaxy.

User michael1026 stated that this was his first pinwheel shot, but it seems like this is actually quite a skilled capturing of a great assortment of stars.
 
Source:
http://www.astrobin.com/157931/

An Image Hosting Site for Astrophotographers, By Astrophotographers: AstroBin in Review

AstroBin is a website dedicated to hosting images taken by astrophotographers, which are notoriously high in size and require a minimal amount of compression to maintain their fidelity.

I have been consuming their hosted content for months now, and I absolutely adore it. The quality of hosted images is quite high, and the community of photographers is both friendly and encouraging.

Although I don't currently have enough equipment to create my own images of that quality, I am happy to observe the images of others with clearer skies than mine, and to share them with all of my readers here.

I will be posting a series of images taken by astrophotographers around the world, often hosted on AstroBin and similar sites.

Take note, and keep your eyes on the stars!

Ganymede, Jupiter's Moon

I was browsing the web, and I came across this stunning image of Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons.

According to the Washington Post article "Everything you wanted to know about the stars — and more, from Astronomy magazine", there is 25% more volume inside of Ganymede than the whole of the planet Mercury!