Stuff in the Sky

[Canuck from Kansas]

It's really mind boggling when you look at the vast amount of stars and planets in these pics and you think about the possibilities of life beyond ours. There has to be several planets that have life either more advanced to ours or just developing..

Amazing to think about what is out there waiting to get discovered. Our biggest hurdle at the moment is distance and time to reach these other worlds. Earth as we know it is becoming too polluted and over populated at the rate it's headed now..

Just my thoughts..

I like the idea that with the speed of light and vast distances, "someone/something" with a bigger scope than we can imagine, is watching Earth with dinos on it, and many unanswered things we are curious about in our past is playing out in delayed real-time to the viewers out there.

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." Sir Arther C Clarke - The Fermi Paradox refers to the dichotomy between the high probability that extraterrestrial intelligence exists and the fact that we have no evidence for such aliens.

What is the Fermi Paradox?

The Fermi Paradox asks "Where is everybody?"

www.livescience.com

Love Neil deGrasse Tyson's view on extraterrestrial life and UFOs/Alien visitation:





Cheers

 

[SurfnFish]

Dragon Blood Trees at night...so surreal

see more here - https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/06/daniel-kordan-socotra/

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Dragon Blood Trees at night...so surreal

see more here - https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/06/daniel-kordan-socotra/

Very cool shot, thanks for posting!!

 

[VAGABOND]

Interesting read on the Fermi Paradox. When reading unique information such as this I can’t help but interpret man’s quest to discover other life forms in the universe to be similar to our physicality. Considering the millions of other life forms on planet earth sometimes I think we are overwhelmed with our own importance just looking for someone(thing) to show how wonderfully intelligent we are.
When I check this sub-forum most every morning I’m in awe of the images you folks post here, especially @Canuck from Kansas. Usually what hits the brain cells first is that we I’m actually seeing occurred a loooong time ago.
The Great Filter addendum is equally interesting. The fact the certain life forms can only only exist in certain locales supports a believe we tend to look for “us” instead of “them” in the universe.
Does the Snow Leopard in the Himalayas know the Crocodiles in the lower Zambezi exist? Probably not and I doubt they care but they do co-exist on this planet. One is warm blooded, one cold blooded.
I have the sneaking suspicion that humanity is concerned that the other life forms that do exist…out there… are a more advanced life form and we are in for a rude awakening.
Sorry for blathering on but a big Thank You for jump starting the brain cells again this AM.

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Interesting read on the Fermi Paradox. When reading unique information such as this I can’t help but interpret man’s quest to discover other life forms in the universe to be similar to our physicality. Considering the millions of other life forms on planet earth sometimes I think we are overwhelmed with our own importance just looking for someone(thing) to show how wonderfully intelligent we are.
When I check this sub-forum most every morning I’m in awe of the images you folks post here, especially @Canuck from Kansas. Usually what hits the brain cells first is that we I’m actually seeing occurred a loooong time ago.
The Great Filter addendum is equally interesting. The fact the certain life forms can only only exist in certain locales supports a believe we tend to look for “us” instead of “them” in the universe.
Does the Snow Leopard in the Himalayas know the Crocodiles in the lower Zambezi exist? Probably not and I doubt they care but they do co-exist on this planet. One is warm blooded, one cold blooded.
I have the sneaking suspicion that humanity is concerned that the other life forms that do exist…out there… are a more advanced life form and we are in for a rude awakening.
Sorry for blathering on but a big Thank You for jump starting the brain cells again this AM.

Very interesting and relevant thoughts. The linked, again from Neil deGrasse Tyson and co., speaks to what you are saying:



It's a little long (may want to skip through the first 5 to 6 minutes), but very interesting, easy to follow and somewhat entertaining (apologies in advance for the interruptions though).

Edit - apparently not interruptions in this link.

Hope you enjoy.

cheers

 

[SurfnFish]

fairly sure we'll never find out more about advanced aliens, due to the '3rd Planet Contains Extremely Hostile Life' warning buoy likely stationed past Jupiter, courtesy of the first and last such visit.

 

[Tom Butler]

fairly sure we'll never find out more about advanced aliens, due to the '3rd Planet Contains Extremely Hostile Life' warning buoy likely stationed past Jupiter, courtesy of the first and last such visit.

Pretty sure they would kick our ass in no time. Biological life as we know it moves into areas and consumes resources to benefit itself. If they get here, they would be so far technologically advanced beyond us.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

If planets out there exist, I hope that most don't have a human big- brain lineage, and that they are evolving all fine and happy without that mess : )

Often wonder what Earth would be like now without us.. Am guessing the salmoniformes alone would likely be half the biomass ! Haha

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Oh...saw the comet again last night ! But It is now down to seeing only with a photograph. I could not make it out -even with binoculars.

@Canuck from Kansas -how much longer will it likely be possible to see?

At this point I am just glad to even get a crummy documentation photo. Will miss "little green smudgy"..(middle of frame)

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Oh...saw the comet again last night ! But It is now down to seeing only with a photograph. I could not make it out -even with binoculars.

@Canuck from Kansas -how much longer will it likely be possible to see?

At this point I am just glad to even get a crummy documentation photo. Will miss "little green smudgy"..(middle of frame)
View attachment 54242

Not really sure how long it will be "visible" really depends on the aperture and focal length of the instrument. It became visible to many amateur astronomers back in November, so I suspect it will be imageable for another month or so, but it's visual magnitude is decreasing, now at about 7, in another month it is estimated (according to SkySafari) at about 10. The best is certainly done, though tonight it appears in close proximity to Aldebaran, a bright orange star in the constellation Taurus, in fact, it marks the eye of the bull, follow the 3 stars of Orions belt in the S up and towards the SW, first bright and orange star - Mars will be almost directly above). Not expecting clear skies here though.

Cheers

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

We have had a rare run of mostly clear skies on the coast of WA in the past week. We had zero chances early on. I did see it only once 3 weeks back on a 4:00 am wakeup before the moon played havoc.

I sure love my cheat app Star Walks 2. That is real-time here

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Well, the skies weren't quite as bad as predicted, but they weren't ideal either. High thin clouds did allow for one last look at C2022 E3 (ZTF), she is fading fast (lower left). That bright orange overexposed star is Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, and 13th brightest in all the night sky, with a visual magnitude 0.99. It is part of the Hyades star cluster that makes the head of Taurus, and Aldebaran is in fact the red eye of the bull. While Aldebaran is a constant in the sky, C/2022 E3 will be leaving us soon, perhaps never to return; some believe on its inward swing, the gravity of one of the planets, probably Jupiter, altered the orbit enough to slingshot it out of our solar system, never to return. I will remain optimistic, that she will one day again return in some 50,000 years, though who knows if there will be anyone here to view her.

C2022 E3 (ZTF), thanks for the memories:



Cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

This one stretched the team to its limits, but upper management wanted this target captured and what upper management wants, upper management gets. LBN 777, sometimes commonly referred to as the Vulture Nebula and sometimes the Baby Eagle Nebula, is a “bright” nebula (though not very bright at all) in the constellation Taurus. The ear of the Vulture/Baby Eagle, the dark nebula Barnard 207, is considered a mild star-forming region and home of the proto star IRAS 04016+2610.

This is an extremely dusty area in the Milky Way and this target is the most difficult we have captured. To be sure, viewing conditions in North Carolina are far from ideal for such a target, the Observatory is at sea level and the air is generally humid. We also could use far more imaging time, probably 3 to 4 times what we currently have. We will need to build on this. In full disclosure, the Post-Imaging Processing team went further than they typically like with masking and “stretching” the image.

The Vulture/Baby Eagle Nebula (LBN 777): 20 x 600 second (yes, that’s 10 minutes) light exposures; 20 x 10 minute darks; multispectrum broadband filter:



Cheers

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Comet still in the skies of western WA tonight. Cannot find with binoculars, but with sky app for location one can.
Taken with a 135mm f2.8 lens. It is still "visible" !




Airliner?

 

[VAGABOND]

Airliner? Correct

Red Port
Green Starboard

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

We had a cold front move through, so with colder, drier skies, the Image Acquisition team lept into action the other night, actually, 2:00 AM Friday morning. Must take advantage of these opportunities. The Image Processing team, a much more laid back group, waited until more reasonable hours to do their thing.

M 68 is a magnitude 7.8 globular star cluster in the constellation Hydra. It was discovered in 1780 by Charles Messier, who was unable to resolve it and described it in his catalogue, as he did with several star clusters, as a "Nebula without stars". William Herschel was the first to resolve it into a cluster in 1786. M 68 is actually quite difficult to see for us in the northern hemisphere, given its southern declination (-26 degrees, 52 minutes), never rising to 30 degrees above the horizon. M 68 is approximately 33,000 light years from our solar system, and its some 100,000 plus stars are spread over a volume of about 106 light years in diameter. Not to worry anyone, but this cluster is hurtling towards earth at about 112 km per second. The bright star in the upper right is actually a 5th magnitude variable double star HR 4803.

M 68: 20 x 120 second light exposures; 20 x 120 dark exposures; multispectral filter:



Cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Jupiter in conjunction with the Moon, Venus below (Wednesday, 22 February 2023):



The Moon (ours) and Jupiter with moons, Ganymede (top), Io, and Callisto (below, very faint, in line with Ganymede, Io and Jupiter):



If you have a clear sky Wednesday 01 March, check out Venus and Jupiter in conjunction, will be less than 1 degree apart (width of your pinky at arms length).

Cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Venus Jupiter almost conjunction - Conjunction is tonight, but it's expected to be cloudy here - if you have clear skies, get out at sunset and look to the west.

Rookie mistake of leaving the diffraction mask on for planets, thus the diffraction spikes - we'll just blame it on a young intern.

Jupiter with moons (uppermost to lowest) Callisto, Ganymede, Io, and Europa and Venus at the bottom.



Cheers

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

Venus Jupiter almost conjunction - Conjunction is tonight, but it's expected to be cloudy here - if you have clear skies, get out at sunset and look to the west.

Rookie mistake of leaving the diffraction mask on for planets, thus the diffraction spikes - we'll just blame it on a young intern.

Jupiter with moons (uppermost to lowest) Callisto, Ganymede, Io, and Europa and Venus at the bottom.

View attachment 56340

Cheers

"Canuck Observatory Inc."
Love it.

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

"Canuck Observatory Inc."
Love it.

As some of you sharp-eyed observers have noticed, there has been a change in the images posted. With the recent disappearance of some of our most prized image files ( #197 ), either through the sloppy handling by some young incompetent intern, or by willful theft by a foreign power, perhaps hacking our systems from some sort of errant “weather balloon” ( #1 ), and now the news of invaders from Facebook swooping into our site ( #1 ), we have grown concerned over the security of our most prized assets, our images posted on “Stuff in the Sky”. In consultation with the Observatory’s Office of Legal Council, we have decided to watermark our posted images; thus, hopefully discouraging theft by unscrupulous individuals who, unbeknownst to us, may frequent our neighborhood. The Graphics team will try to place the stamp in an unobtrusive spot so as not to obstruct or in any way diminish your viewing pleasure. We may even have “find the watermark” contests, with wonderful prizes (yet to be determined) for the winner.

As always, the full team at the Canuck Observatory appreciates your wonderful support.

Canuck from Kansas, CEO, CFO,
Chief Legal Council,
Senior Vice President for Image Acquisition,
etc, etc, etc