Stuff in the Sky

[wanderingrichard]

The comet hunters at the Canuck Observatory a proud to announce they have confirmed that the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has sprouted an anti-tail, that is, a tail that is seemingly pointing towards the Sun, rather than the usual away from the Sun (directed by the solar winds). C/2022 E3 (ZTF) actually has 3 tails, an ion tail, very faint and directed almost directly downwards (away from the Sun) in the below image (it actually underwent a "disconnection" last week), a dust tail, the faintly pink hazy area below the nucleus, and the anti-tail, pointing to 11 O'clock. The anti-tail is not actually streaming towards the Sun, it is an optical illusion resulting from our crossing the comets path.

C/2022 E3 (ZTF) should continue to brighten over the next several days, perhaps becoming visible to the naked eye. It is now relatively easily visible with a good pair of binoculars. We are expecting a couple of cloudy rainy days but clearing by Friday night/Saturday morning, as the comet nears its closest approach to Earth in 01 February.

View attachment 51210

Cheers

Is this the suddenly famous "Green Comet" that's been in the news so much ?

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Yup. It is getting a lot of attention for something that really isn't visible to the naked eye, at least not yet, and it is nowhere near as spectacular as Neowise was, but when it comes to comets, you take what you can get.

cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Wish I could take credit for this one - a great image:

NGC 5777 - astrophotography by tommasostella

Build your astrophotography profile for free

telescopius.com

Cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

The Image Acquisition team has been hard at work:

NGC 891 is a virtually edge-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Andromeda, discovered by William Herschel on 06 October 1784. It is not clear why his friend, Charles Messier, did not include it in his catalogue. NGC 891 has a clearly visible dust lane along its equatorial plane.

NGC 891: 40 x 240 second light exposures; 30 x 240 darks; multispectrum broadband filter:



Lower’s Nebula (SH 2-261) is a rather innocuous 10th magnitude bright nebula in the constellation Orion, approximately 2935 light years from our solar system, and situated between the Orion and Perseus arm of our Milky Way galaxy. The nebula is named after Harold and Charles Lower who discovered it in 1939. It is predominantly composed of ionized hydrogen.

Lower’s Nebula (SH 2-261): 30 x 300 second light exposures; 25 x 300 dark exposures; OIII/H-alpha duo-narrowband filter:



Part of the the constellation Orion taken with Sony Alpha 77ii with 70-400 mm zoom at 225 mm f4.5 - you can see the Orion Nebula, vaguely Running Man (just above Orion), the 3 stars that make up Orion's Belt (Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak), and the Flame nebula



Cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

NGC 1579 is diffuse dusty star-forming region composed of both emission and reflection nebulae in the constellation Perseus. It is often commonly referred to as the Northern Triffid Nebula due to its resemblance to the larger and closer Trifid Nebula (Messier 20, #84). The glowing red region of NGC 1579 is hydrogen gas excited by the central hot stars. It is actually surrounded by a diffuse blue cloud (too diffuse and faint for the Zenithstar 81) of reflected starlight. What I like is the almost creepy face.

NNGC 1579 (Norther Trifid Nebula): 40 x 300 second light exposures; 30 x 300 second dark exposures; OIII/H-alpha duo-narrowband filter:



Information from https://esahubble.org/images/potw1322a/

Cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Probably the last shot of Comet 2022/E3 (ZTF); forecast for the next few days is cloudy and raining. Likely will not get the Mars flyby. Oh well, fun while it lasted, see you again in another 50K years or so, safe travels!



Cheers

 

[Divad]

6:59pm about 20-30 planes(?) all flying in a row, evenly spaced but no sound. Anybody else see that? The quantity and perfect spacing were a little trippy.

 

[M_D]

aren’t those the satelite chains? Starlink I think

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

6:59pm about 20-30 planes(?) all flying in a row, evenly spaced but no sound. Anybody else see that? The quantity and perfect spacing were a little trippy.

View attachment 53392

View attachment 53391

aren’t those the satelite chains? Starlink I think

Not sure how long your exposures were, but if they were airplanes, then the lights would be more like a dashed line of light due to blinking navigation lights, rather than a solid line, which to my eye they appear to be. I suspect @M_D is correct and you can pin it on a Starlink chain of satellites, you can blame that Musk fellow.

Following every Starlink launch, the internet buzzes with people asking "What’s that long line of lights in the sky that looks like a train?"
What you’re seeing is the Starlink satellites moving into a higher orbit. You can check to see if they will pass over your area using the Find Starlink website.

| EarthSky

earthsky.org

Cheers

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

6:59pm about 20-30 planes(?) all flying in a row, evenly spaced but no sound. Anybody else see that? The quantity and perfect spacing were a little trippy.

View attachment 53392

View attachment 53391

Nice shot of Orion by the way!

cheers

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

On the board late in the 4th quarter with the Comet tonight in western WA. FINALLY a photo. Being it was close to Mars made it pretty easy as well.
The fuzzy green thing (comet) opposite the fuzzy orange thing (Mars)

Tip of the hat to the Canuck Observatory @Canuck from Kansas for his fine photos of the comet, and all things Space !

Bottom shot has a streaking... (a) meteor (b) satellite (c) regular run of the mill UFO ?

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

On the board late in the 4th quarter with the Comet tonight in western WA. FINALLY a photo. Being it was close to Mars made it pretty easy as well.
The fuzzy green thing (comet) opposite the fuzzy orange thing (Mars)

Tip of the hat to the Canuck Observatory @Canuck from Kansas for his fine photos of the comet, and all things Space !

Bottom shot has a streaking... (a) meteor (b) satellite (c) regular run of the mill UFO ?

View attachment 53549

View attachment 53551

Thanks for posting!! Nice shots.

Stellarium indicated NORAD 42941 (International Designator 2017-056A) zipping by Mars at 9:59:30 Pacific time, so if that's when you took your shot, you were spying on NORAD/NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) - I'd lay low - not a lot of information out there on this guy, it is thought to be a TRUMPET satellite. Their precise mission and capabilities are classified. News reports state that the satellites monitor radio communication using antennas with diameters of 150 m. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumpet_(satellite)

If that's not when you took your shot, then my money is on a UFO, in which case, I'd really lay low.

Completely cloudy here, last chance tonight, it's not looking promising, clouds and rain forecasted all evening/night.

Cheers

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Thanks for posting!! Nice shots.

Stellarium indicated NORAD 42941 (International Designator 2017-056A) zipping by Mars at 9:59:30 Pacific time, so if that's when you took your shot, you were spying on NORAD/NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) - I'd lay low - not a lot of information out there on this guy, it is thought to be a TRUMPET satellite. Their precise mission and capabilities are classified. News reports state that the satellites monitor radio communication using antennas with diameters of 150 m. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumpet_(satellite)

If that's not when you took your shot, then my money is on a UFO, in which case, I'd really lay low.

Completely cloudy here, last chance tonight, it's not looking promising, clouds and rain forecasted all evening/night.

Cheers

Hi, shot was at 7:59pm PT. I assume it was a satellite. I was not watching and just working the camera. Back with Neowise, I do remember watching a scene while taking an exposure when a meteor did streak near the comet and the line was similar.

I guess any light for the duration of the exposure will pretty much show as that? But, I will keep on the low just incase it was that tennis shoe bunch

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Hi, shot was at 7:59pm PT. I assume it was a satellite. I was not watching and just working the camera. Back with Neowise, I do remember watching a scene while taking an exposure when a meteor did streak near the comet and the line was similar.

I guess any light for the duration of the exposure will pretty much show as that? But, I will keep on the low just incase it was that tennis shoe bunch

In thinking about this more, I doubt a satellite. What was your exposure? I suspect you were 2 to 3 seconds as you don't have much star trailing. A satellite would likely not span that much of the frame in that time (too slow) - so likely either a meteor or fast moving UFO.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Yes, 2.5 seconds. 250mm f5 on a crop 2x m4/3 body, plus cropped again about half frame so about ..thinking..roughly... view of 1000mm/20x optical view?

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Neowise with confirmed meteor I watched shooting by, and with helicopter

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

In celebration of Valentines Day, in lieu of a vase of flowers, the better halves of the staff at the Observatory received a single, special rose from the constellation Monoceros. It is lit up by an open cluster of stars (Rosette cluster, NGC 2244), whose stellar winds have created the hollow at the center. In this special edition, the Post-Imaging Processing team reworked an image captured in January 2022, using more of a "Hubble" palette, to provide the violet core of the rose.



Cheers and happy Valentines Day from the staff of the Canuck Observatory.

 

[Tom Butler]

In celebration of Valentines Day, in lieu of a vase of flowers, the better halves of the staff at the Observatory received a single, special rose from the constellation Monoceros. It is lit up by an open cluster of stars (Rosette cluster, NGC 2244), whose stellar winds have created the hollow at the center. In this special edition, the Post-Imaging Processing team reworked an image captured in January 2022, using more of a "Hubble" palette, to provide the violet core of the rose.

View attachment 54087

Cheers and happy Valentines Day from the staff of the Canuck Observatory.

That's a great shot. Got her flowers, but I'll share with my wife later. Today marks 34 years since out first date.

 

[cdnred]

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..

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

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 and is playing out in delayed real-time to the viewers out there.