Large Field Photography

I just saw this image on Reddit, and it's fantastic.

A large field capture of the majority of the night sky, it encapsulates an uncounted number of stars, and the constellations Cassiopeia all the way to the Andromeda galaxy.

Breathtaking, but also a testament to the ability of modern recording devices, even those at the consumer level, to take very high quality wide angle shots of large fields of the night sky. The person who took this photo used a canon t3i camera with a 24 millimeter lens, then processed the image in PixInsight at ISO 1600.

I think that the image is very nice, the only critique would be that there is some artifactual light distortion likely stemming from imperfections in the glass.


You can see the image in it's full glory on the host site Imgur but a smaller version will be shared here in the post.

It's just breathtakingly large.

The MAVEN Orbiter is making it's 100th passing around Mars

Maven, an orbiting spacecraft intended to study the Martian atmosphere, is about to make its 100th journey around the red planet.

It's a landmark victory for NASA and humanity at large, as the MAVEN orbiter has been a useful tool to evaluate the changes that have taken place on Mars to the atmosphere and shed light on what may lay in wait for the planet Earth.

This is especially interesting as people discuss the possibility of going to Mars through projects like Mars One and Space X.

For more information, here's a commercial piece from ABC http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasas-maven-probe-learned-1000-mars-orbits/story?id=30175139

Total Lunar Eclipse expected April 4th, 2015

Just after we've heard of the lunar eclipse visible in Northern Europe, which I mentioned earlier this year on my blog, there's word of another lunar eclipse coming up April 4th of 2015.

This will be classified astronomically as a total lunar eclipse, which means that the Earth will temporarily pass into the shadow of the moon and a portion of the world will be unable to see the Sun because of it.

Visibility of the upcoming eclipse, sourced from Sky and Telescope

I've linked an image of the astronomical graphic, there will be complete visibility in the central Pacific, Alaska, Eastern Australia and Siberia, along with a number of island nations, and partial visibility over much of the continents of Asia, North America, and South America, where the Moon will either be "rising" or "setting" while occluding the path of the Sun's light to the Earth.

Great Shot of the Eclipse This Week

If I have any European readers, they likely had the opportunity to witness an amazing sight over the past week, a complete solar eclipse.

These occur when the Earth moves into the shadow of the moon. As a result, our ability to see the light of the sun is reduced to elimination, and we are able to observe some really interesting results. This image shows the dark disc of the moon, and the sun's light spilling over the edges in a bright ring, which is called a corona. The best part of this shot is the way that the sun seems to peek around on the left hand side.

The photographer that posted this image referred to it as a "Diamond Ring" effect, and I am inclined to agree.

It's quite stunning.

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