Portrait of a Bat

صورة
أُنشئ لصالح OAE

الشرح: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in November 2019 from the Doi Inthanon National Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand, this image captures the notable northern constellation Cassiopeia, in the shape of the letter M. Although the official constellation name is the Latinised version of the name of queen “Kasseipeia” from Greek mythology, these five bright stars were considered a constellation in many cultures around the world and they are associated with diverse stories. In Thailand, for example, the constellation represents a Bat, while in Hawaiian culture it is called 'Iwa Keli'i, the chief frigate bird. For the Navajo in North America, the bright stars are the central part of the celestial mother (of all stars and humans) revolving around the celestial pole together with her husband, the celestial father (of all stars and humans) seen in the constellation of Ursa Major. For the Maya it was part of the huge constellation of the Hole-Backed Caiman, and for the Inuit a Lamp Stand and a Blubber Container. In ancient China, the bottom-left star was associated with the mythological general Wangliang who drove four horses, represented by the two bright and two fainter stars of the M’s next stroke (from upper-left to lower-middle). The remaining two bright stars and a couple of the other fainter ones are considered a Flying Corridor, a sort of highway, next to the Emperor’s Forbidden Palace that is located at the northern polar region. On the island of Tonga in the South Pacific, this asterism is considered the Wing of Tafahi and it is not clear if this refers to the shape of the island of Tafahi, or if it is based on an error and originally referred to a wing of the Polynesian hero Tafaki. The various colours of the stars indicate their temperatures, with redder stars being relatively cooler on their surface than blue and white stars.
المصدر: Thanakrit Santikunaporn/IAU OAE

مصطلحات المعجم: اللون , مجموعة نجمية او حشد نجمى , المجمة
فئات: علم الفلك بالعين المجردة

الترخيص: المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) أيقونات

هذا الملف على Zenodo ( صورة 9.65 MB)

Star Trails And Lava Plume on Mount Etna February 2021, by Dario Giannobile, Italy

صورة
أُنشئ لصالح OAE

الشرح: Third place in the IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Star trails. This spectacular image captures some of the most dramatic expressions of Nature, the eruption of a volcano and the night sky. The volcano in the foreground is Mount Etna, located in Sicily/Italy, during an eruption in February 2021. In the background, we can see the star trails resulting from the Earth's motion around its imaginary axis. As Mount Etna is located about 37° N, we can notice that the arcs are quite open, as this is far from the North Pole, from where the view from the sky would provide traces drawing circles. As we move to the Equator, either from the Southern or Northern Hemisphere, the star traces become more and more parallel, instead of circular, as the viewer moves away from the zenith pointing to one of the Earth's rotational axes. Therefore, the sky presents us with valuable information about location and time and was an important practice for ancient civilizations to follow the movement of the celestial bodies. The image also captures the varying colours of stars which result from differece in the temperature of stars: higher temperature stars are bluer, compared to the lower temperature white and red stars.
المصدر: Dario Giannobile/IAU OAE

مصطلحات المعجم: مسارات النجوم
فئات: علم الفلك بالعين المجردة

الترخيص: المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) أيقونات

هذا الملف على Zenodo ( صورة 12.61 MB)

Chilean Nights

فيديو
أُنشئ لصالح OAE

الشرح: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Time lapses of celestial patterns.   Shot in December 2020, this time-lapse shows the sky from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, in the southern hemisphere. Right in the first frame we can see our home galaxy, the Milky Way, as well as both the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, two satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. In the bottom of the image the bright stars Rigil Kentaurus and Hadar (also known as Alpha and Beta Centauri) are visible, both in the constellation Centaurus. Just above, we can also see the small constellation Crux, visible from the northern tropical circles southwards. It is important for navigation purposes because its longer axis indicates the direction of the celestial south pole. The bright whitish star in the top of the image and to the right of the Galaxy is Canopus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, located in the constellation Carina. Canopus is the second brightest star in the sky, while Rigil Kentaurus is the third brightest. In some of the next frames, Orion, the great hunter, appears clearly with its bright stars and its characteristic asterism, the belt, composed of three aligned bright stars. Since this video was taken from the southern hemisphere, the Greek hero from the northern hemisphere seems to be performing a headstand. We can also see the planets Jupiter and Saturn in a close conjunction, even finding themselves in the significant beam of Zodiacal light setting down below the horizon. There are also a few meteors blinking in some of the frames, one of them with a long-lasting and developing trail. The very bright object rising from behind the volcanoes of the Andes, creating spectacular shadows and crepuscular rays, is the Moon. In the last frame we see the Moon next to Saturn and Jupiter.
المصدر: Robert Barsa/IAU OAE

مصطلحات المعجم: المرصد الفلكي , مجموعة نجمية او حشد نجمى , درب التبانة , الجَبّار , سحابة ماجلان الكبرى , سحابة ماجلان الصغيرى , رجل القنطور
فئات: المجرات , درب التبانة والوسط بين النجمي , النجوم , التلسكوبات والأجهزة والمراصد

الترخيص: المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) أيقونات

هذا الملف على Zenodo ( فيديو 114.03 MB)

Dreamlike Starry Sky and Airglow

صورة
أُنشئ لصالح OAE

الشرح: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This spectacular image shows a range of prominent constellations visible in the night sky over the desert of inner Mongolia, taken in August 2019. The yellowish star in the bottom left side is Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and the brightest in the constellation Boötes. The handle of the Big Dipper points towards this bright star and the Dipper is also visible above Boötes. The Northern Dipper (Bei Dou) is a traditional Chinese constellation. It is considered a chariot in which the Judges for Nobility are sitting. Arcturus is considered a single-star asterism, named the Horn, which forms part of the Chinese super-constellation for the spring, the Azure Dragon of the East. The front of the Northern Dipper points towards the star at the top of the photograph which is now called Polaris, the northern Pole Star. In ancient China, there was no bright star at the pole, so the stars in the nearest vicinity of the pole were considered to belong to the emperor and his family in the constellation the Purple Forbidden Palace. At least as early as mediaeval times, Polaris was considered part of the constellation of the Great Emperor of Heaven. Corona Borealis is also visible in the top right corner of this image, although not in its completeness. It is called the Coiled Thong in China. With its characteristic semi-circular shape, this is one of the smaller constellations of the 88 modern ones, but also can be traced back at least three or four millennia through the Roman “Crown”, the Greek wedding “Wreath”, and the Babylonian “Asterism of Dignity”. The modern name literally means “Northern Crown” in Latin. At the upper-right edge of the image, we find the part of the modern constellation Cassiopeia that is considered the Flying Corridor and an Auxiliary Road in ancient China. The W-shape of Cassiopeia is cut off by the edge of the photograph but the constellations to its south and southeast, Andromeda and Perseus, are clearly recognisable. Prominently we see the Andromeda galaxy, the most distant object that is visible to the unaided eye. It is located at the outermost outliers of the band of the Milky Way, which could explain why it has not been mentioned explicitly in ancient star catalogues, as it was mistakenly thought to be part of the Milky Way. The photograph also shows clearly reddish parts of the Milky Way that don’t appear bright to the naked eye, and also open clusters that are formed from the same molecular cloud, i.e., groups of stars with similar ages. This region is part of many big and small asterisms in traditional Chinese uranology.
المصدر: Likai Lin/IAU OAE

مصطلحات المعجم: المغرفة الكبرى , النجوم القطبية , القطب السماوي الشمالي , النجم القطبي , المجمة
فئات: علم الفلك بالعين المجردة

الترخيص: المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) أيقونات

هذا الملف على Zenodo ( صورة 9.42 MB)

Neptune’s Moon Triton Fosters Rare Icy Union

صورة

الشرح: An image of Neptune's moon Triton taken by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. This image covers the south pole region of Triton. Triton's surface is covered by an icy mix of frozen nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide. Below the surface some of these compounds are thought to be in a liquid state. These liquids can burst out of the surface through geysers. These geysers produce the dark streaks seen in this image.
المصدر: NASA/JPL
رابط المصدر

مصطلحات المعجم: الأقمار , نبتون , ترايتُون
فئات: النظام الشمسي

الترخيص: المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) المشاع الإبداعي نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) أيقونات

ملف ( صورة 506.41 kB)