Artist’s Impression Of The Exotic Binary Star System AR Scorpii

Island Point Milky Way

Nikon d5100 - 6 x 25s - ISO 4000 - f2.8 - 16mm

Imgur GIF

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Amazing. Hubble’s Deep Field image in relation to the rest of the night sky.

Years ago, I worked at a large chain grocery store in the Southeast US, you can probably guess which one. I had a manager that just did not like me. For example my car broke down on my way to work on my birthday, and when I finally made it there she chewed me out in front of the store for coworkers and customers alike to spectate. 

She often pushed me to quit school and work full time because she was so certain I would fail, and she needed the shifts covered. Well Saturday before Easter(a busy day for them) I was back in my old city, now gainfully employed and quite happy. I stopped in that store to pick up a few things. It was so busy that she was relegated to bagging groceries. Perfect. I made my way to her line with a huge grin on my face. She recognized me. Perfect.

This particular chain makes baggers ask guests if they would like help taking their groceries to the car. She must have forgotten, so I specifically asked her for help. She would have been reprimanded for refusing, and thus obliged. She’s an old woman, the uniforms are conservative, the parking lot is huge, we are in South Florida and the employees can’t accept tips. I relished in walking her to my new car, a car that would have been far out of my reach on a grocery clerk’s salary. As she finished loading my groceries, she said “Come back and see us again!” and I said “Yeah, I guess you’ll still be here.”

Left a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

Here’s one I haven’t seen before. Perseid meteors viewed from above, from the International Space Station, 2 in about 2 seconds from the high resolution downlooking camera.

Just so you know, you can always watch the Earth live from the ISS. Its really relaxing to me (the music they play is soothing too)

Horsehead Nebula 

Next level backyard astrophotography!

“Amateur astrophotographer David Ellison captured this image **from his backyard** in Chattanooga, Tenn. Located approximately 1,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion, the Horsehead Nebula is simple to spot due to its unique shape resembling a horse’s head. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). This image is a narrow band photograph of four hours of exposure using a QSI camera and a 4-inch telescope. The star seen just above the Flame nebula is Alnitak. Goodnight, Earthlings! Credit and Copyright: David Ellison.“

Elephants Trunk Nebula IC1396

Thursday was the first clear night in ages so I took Friday off and stayed up most of the night imaging this beauty. Taken using a Canon 700D and a Canon 200mm lens

White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) at Sunset

Lido Key Beach, FL

Beneath the Milky Way

Deep in the Chilean Desert, astronomers staying at ESO’s La Residencia, the VLT Observatory’s hotel, witness a skyscape like few others on Earth.

In this photograph, the plane of the Milky Way can be seen above La Residencia, as passing staff members take a moment to admire the spectacular sight.

Credit: ESO/Luis Calçada/Herbert Zodet

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 2016 September 6 

The Whirlpool Galaxy and Beyond 

Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper’s bowl, until you get to the handle’s last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier’s famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (left), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici. Though M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the human eye, the above long-exposure, deep-field image taken earlier this year shows much of the faint complexity that actually surrounds the smaller galaxy. Thousands of the faint dots in background of the featured image are actually galaxies far across the universe.