Just above and slightly to the right of tonight's “Super Blue Moon”, is the planet Saturn. It was only a few days ago that it was at opposition, so it is still close enough to see some of its moons.
@TClarkIII
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Amateur Earth, Sky, and Space Photographer. Enjoying the dark skies that the high deserts of Western Colorado offer. https://www.facebook.com/Nyx-101699354682227
Tonight's “Super Blue Moon” that was a light orange tint as it cleared the horizon, slowly moved behind some clouds before taking on its normal grayish colour.
Tonight, August 30, will be the second of two August super moons for this month. Each month, a full moon has a name. For August, the full moon is traditionally known as the Sturgeon Moon (because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of summer).
But this is the second full moon in August, and if there is a second full moon during any calendar month, then that second full moon is known as a “Blue Moon”. But tonight's full moon is 1/3
#Astronomy #Astrophotography #NightSky #Space #Sirius
Soon, very soon, Sirius will be showing off. This short video shows what happens when you place Sirius out of focus.
This fourth image shows where NGC 6453 is located within our galaxy in relationship to where our solar system is located. 5/5
spread out to a diameter of 25 light-years. At an estimated distance of 980 light-years from our Earth, this corresponds to an apparent diameter of 80 arc minutes, more than twice the apparent size of the full Moon.
Both Messier 6 and Messier 7 are near each other and can be seen by the unaided eye but the use of binoculars and/or telescopes helps in seeing the details of the star clusters.
The third image cannot be seen by the unaided eye or binoculars.
This third image is NGC 6453 3/5
stars and one very bright orange star, known as BM Scorpii. This star is classified as a Supergiant. Where our home star, the sun, has a solar radius of about 432,000 miles (695,000 kilometers), BM Scorpii has a solar radius of about 269,995,593 miles (434,517,408 kilometers). Its luminosity (brightness) is about 43,830 times that of our star.
This second image is Messier 7, also listed as NGC 6475 or Ptolemy Cluster. This open star cluster also contains about 80 stars, but they are 2/5
This second image is Messier 7, also listed as NGC 6475 or Ptolemy Cluster. This open star cluster also contains about 80 stars, but they are 2/5
Out again last night to get images on some more star clusters using the telescope. The rest of this week I'll be setting up the camera for catching “shooting stars” (the Perseid meteor shower will peck on the night of August 12 and the morning of August 13).
This first image is Messier 6, also known as the Butterfly Cluster. This is an open star cluster located about 1,600 light-years from our Earth in the southern constellation of Scorpius. This cluster has about 80 whitish or blue-white 1/5
Just to the right of the star Antares ("the heart of the scorpion"), is the globular star cluster Messier 4 (also designated NGC 6121). This is an easy star cluster to find, mostly due to its closeness to the star Antares and its size, appearing around the same size as our moon. But in reality, at 6,033 light-years from our Earth, it is 75 light-years across. It is also the closest globular star cluster to our Earth.
1st image is the star Antares.
2nd image is Messier 4.
Just above Messier 8 is another star-forming region called Messier 20 (Trifid Nebula). The first time I took pictures of this nebula (two years ago), all I got was the open star cluster and none of the nebulae. This is also an unusual item because it's actually four different objects: an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, a dark nebula and an open star cluster.
The reddish part of Messier 20 is the emission nebulae, caused by the ultraviolet light of nearby stars. Emission nebulae are 1/3
