Brian Ventrudo

Nebulosity in the ‘Swan’s Chest’

May 19, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Deep Sky

Gamma Cygni mosaic_LRGB+HA_small_Terry Hancock — Blue-white star Sadr (right) is surrounded by a complex of dark nebulae and bright emission nebulae in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan (credit: Terry Hancock)

The bright star Sadr marks the chest of the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Located in the direction of the northern Milky Way, this little patch of sky is packed with diffuse emission and dark nebulae that are part of the much larger Cygnus Molecular Cloud. This image by Terry Hancock shows the rich nebulosity in this region as captured from his backyard observatory in Fremont Michigan. He created this mosaic originally consisting of 5 panels and later cropped to make 4 panels using 187 individual frames and a total exposure time of over 18 hours. The total mosaic covers an area approximately 6.5 x 5.4 degrees. Equipment used, QHY11 Monochrome CCD and Takahashi E-180 [Read more…] about Nebulosity in the ‘Swan’s Chest’

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Alpha Centauri Through a (Really) Big Telescope

May 14, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Stargazing

1. Alpha Centauri Through a (Really) Big Telescope

The razor-sharp images afforded by Earth-based telescopes with high-tech adaptive optic systems often rival images from space-based scopes like Hubble. But is it possible to look through the eyepiece of one of these big scopes? A select group of professional astronomers did just that. They peered through the 6.5 m Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory and saw the two brightest stars in the Alpha Centauri system split as wide as a church door. By contrast, this is what the two stars look like in a small amateur telescope.

2. Venus Brightens

Venus, already tremendously bright and high in the western sky after sunset, is now tangled in the feet of Gemini in the northern Milky Way. The planet reached its highest point above the horizon last week and now slowly sinks in the west on its way to a photogenic rendezvous with Jupiter on the last day of June.

3. A Paradise Lost?

Speaking of Venus… the planet is similar to Earth in size and mass, and lies within the zone in which a planet might be habitable. Yet Venus has a distinctly un-Earth-like environment. It’s a pressure-cooked hellhole of a world hot enough to melt lead, a place where rain falls in the form of battery acid. But Venus may not always have been so unpleasant. About 650 million years ago, the planet was wracked by volcanic activity that covered much of its surface in lava and turned the planet into a giant toxic greenhouse. A pair of planetary scientists recently found evidence that Venus may once have had tectonic activity, continents, and perhaps even oceans, and may have been a much more hospitable place.

4. Eta Carinae: The Next Supernova?

The Eta Carinae Nebula, the jewel of the southern-hemisphere constellation Carina, the Keel, is the most spectacular example of an active star factory in all the heavens. In this excerpt from an upcoming e-book about the most striking nebulae of the Milky Way, you get a close look at this star-forming region that harbors a star that’s too big to be stable… or to last for much longer.

5. A Video Game As Big As A Galaxy

I last played a video game when Ronald Reagan was early in his first term. Life’s too short, I say, to muck around in front of a game. The real world is interesting enough. But this may change. A new game called “No Man’s Sky” is due for release at the end of the year, and it’s a jaw-dropping extravaganza of imagination and computer science that enables the ‘player’ to navigate and explore more than 18 quintillion unique planets. The ‘universe’ in this game is designed using natural laws that determine the age and composition and physical characteristics of stars, planets, and life. Early video clips are awfully impressive. A feature on the creation of the game is out this week in the New Yorker.

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Venus Brightens

May 13, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Solar System

Venus, Jupiter, and the Beehive star cluster imaged on May 13, 2015 from Ottawa, Canada

Venus continues to brighten in the western sky after sunset this month. It’s caught under the feet of the constellation Gemini in the northern Milky Way not far from the splendid open star cluster M35 at mid-month. A pair of binoculars shows both in the same field of view. The bright planet reached its highest point above the horizon on May 8 and now slowly moves back towards the horizon each night on its way to an extremely close and photogenic encounter with Jupiter at the end of June [Read more…] about Venus Brightens

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100,000 Galaxies, No Signs of Life

May 7, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Stargazing

1. Mercury Lingers in the Western Sky

The tiny planet Mercury lingers in the western sky after sunset, still tangled in the lacework of star clusters in the constellation Taurus. The planet reaches greatest eastern elongation on May 7, 2015 at an angular distance of 21º from the Sun. Mercury is visible over the next few days about 10 degrees above the NW horizon for northern-hemisphere observers, and just 5 degrees above the horizon for southern-hemisphere observers. Here’s what to look for in the next few days…

2. 100,000 Galaxies, No Advanced Aliens

Now to a superb think piece by Lee Billings about a recent search for advanced alien civilizations in other galaxies. While it may sound far-fetched, the search was grounded in hard science. Assuming advanced civilizations have learned to harness the energy of stars to build solar-system-wide habitats, we should be able to see the waste energy in the form of infrared (IR) light over and above the background light of a galaxy. After searching 100,000 galaxies for excess IR, no sign was found beyond what’s expected from natural processes. So maybe there are no advanced civilizations, at least yet. Or perhaps there’s a subtler answer… that advanced life, assuming it exists, might evolve to be efficient and integrated with its natural environment. It’s a fascinating read.<

3. Panorama of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster

It’s galaxy season! Between the constellations Leo and Virgo, in a patch of sky no larger than your outstretched hand, you can see dozens of the more than two thousand galaxies of the Virgo cluster, the largest major galaxy cluster to our Milky Way. Have a look at this superb image of part of the Virgo cluster taken with a backyard telescope, and learn a little about how galaxy clusters evolve….

4. Sailing Stones and Splendid Stars

The last few years have seen an explosion of nightscape photography, a combination of landscape and astrophotography using new DSLR cameras with the latest large, low-noise sensors. It’s not an easy form of photography, least of all because you need to stand in complete darkness, in the middle of nowhere, for hours at a time. But I love this art form. One of my very favorite nightscapes is by David Kingham, who from Death Valley, California, managed to image a remarkable “sailing stone” in a dried mud flat with the stars of Orion and Canis Major in the background. It’s a superb piece of photography.

5. From the ‘Observer’s Log’ – The Splinter Galaxy

>Finally this week, just to show that sometimes I get to do a little stargazing myself, I present a short observing report from my ‘observer’s log’ taken during a night of backyard galaxy hopping.

Wishing you clear skies,

Brian Ventrudo

Publisher, Cosmic Pursuits

CosmicPursuits.com

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Mercury Lingers in the Western Sky

May 7, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Solar System

Mercury as seen from 45 degrees N latitude at 9 p.m. local time on May 7, 2015.

The tiny planet Mercury lingers in the western sky after sunset, still tangled in the lacework of star clusters in the constellation Taurus. The planet reaches greatest eastern elongation on May 7, 2015 at an angular distance of 21º from the Sun. Because of the angle of the ecliptic, this translates to a better view for northern stargazers who can see the planet about 10º above the northwestern horizon at 9 p.m. local time [Read more…] about Mercury Lingers in the Western Sky

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