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To guard the Stars and the Sea Together
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Créé pour l'OAE
Légende : Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.
This image composition is amazing. In the far background of the landscape we see a chain of mountains that seems to mirror the structure of the Milky Way in the sky above. The strong daylight-like colours of the landscape are caused by the Moon, the bright light at the top of the image.
Taken in Kinabalu, Malaysia, in February 2019, this image shows the alignment of planets and the Moon, conveying the idea of the ecliptic as the central line of the Zodiac, the plane within which all planets orbit the Sun. The ecliptic is the central line of the Zodiac, so the region of about five to 10 degrees either side of the ecliptic is where the constellations of the Zodiac are located. Starting from the horizon towards the bottom left of the image we can see the planets Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. The planets have different cultural significance for people around the world, and are deeply embedded in social, religious and practical aspects of life. For example, Wardaman traditions of Indigenous Australians associate the planets with ancestor spirits who traverse the Celestial Road (ecliptic). The appearance and disappearance of planets in the sky are associated with various ceremonies. For example, when Venus starts being the “Morning star” after having been the “Evening star”, this marks the Banumbirr ceremony for the Yolnu people of Arnhem Land, in Australia.
The image also shows the constellations Scorpius, Aquila, Lupus and Triangulum Australe, the asterism of the Teapot, and the two pointer stars Alpha and Beta Centauri. The constellations, asterisms and individual stars within them have significance in many different cultures.
Malaysia, being close to the equator, has had connections to the north as well as to the south and almost the whole sky is visible over the course of the year. The star Antares is seen by the Kokatha people of the Western Desert as Kogolongo, the red tailed black cockatoo, while the Boorong refer to it as Djuit, the red-rumped parrot. The two stars which form the stinger of Scorpius (Shaula and Lesath), are called Karik Karik, the Australian Kestrel.
Crédit : Likai Lin/IAU OAE
Termes du glossaire:
Constellation , Jupiter , Lune , Saturne , Scorpius , Vénus , Zodiaque , Astérisme , Alpha du Centaure
Catégories :
Astronomie à l'œil nu
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Ce fichier est sur Zenodo ( image 3.77 MB)
Great Britain covered by snow
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Légende : Snow covering almost all of Great Britain. This image was taken by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite on the 7th of January 2010. On most days in winter only the highest mountains in Great Britain will be covered in snow. But a very cold weather and heavy snowfall in early January 2010 led to all but a few areas on the coast being covered by snow.
Ireland on the left is mostly covered by cloud, but where there are gaps we can see no snow coverage.
Crédit : NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
Lien du crédit
Termes du glossaire:
Hiver
Licence : Domaine Public Domaine Public Icônes
Fichier
( image
23.80 MB)
Star Trails of the Forbidden City
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Créé pour l'OAE
Légende : Honorable mention in the 2023 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category of Still images taken exclusively with smartphones/mobile devices.
Beneath the celestial ballet of star trails that weave their way across the night sky, the Beijing Forbidden City stands as a testament to ancient celestial connections in this image captured in March 2022. Designed with a cosmic alignment in mind, the palace echoes the orientation of the North Star, also known as Polaris, a celestial anchor that has long guided navigators and symbolised steadiness in the sky. It was believed that the Emperor embodied the earthly representation of this pole star, bridging the realms between heaven and earth. In this harmonious one-hour exposure captured with a smartphone, the streaks of stars trace their nightly journey across the firmament, converging toward the North Star, reflecting the precision of both architectural design and celestial paths.
Crédit : Stephanie Ziyi Ye/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)
Termes du glossaire:
Pôle céleste , Sphère Céleste , Étoiles circumpolaires , Navigation , Pôle céleste nord (PCN) , Polaris
Mots clés :
astrophotography
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Ce fichier est sur Zenodo ( image 4.12 MB)
Chilean observatories at home office, by Robert Barsa, Slovakia
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Créé pour l'OAE
Légende : Third place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Wide star fields.
This rich panoramic image shows a range of constellations, deep sky objects and planets. The brightest point of light with a pale reddish hue (left of center) is the planet Mars. In the bottom far left of the image, located just above the sloped roof of the building are two points of light appearing very close to each other, these are the planets Jupiter (brighter) and Saturn. To the far right of the image the two fuzzy cloud-like objects are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These are satellite dwarf galaxies of the Milky Way located at a distance of approximately 160,000 and 200,000 light years, respectively. The Andromeda Galaxy, which is located at an approximate distance of 2.5 million light years, appears in this image as a small, angled smudge between Mars and the brightest glow on the horizon (closer to the horizon). The bright glow is not from the Sun or the Moon, but the city lights of San Pedro de Atacama.
Prominent constellations include: Orion – identified by the three stars forming Orion’s Belt; Taurus – a small triangle shaped collection of stars to the left of Orion and identified by the pale orange star (Aldebaran) at the vertex of the triangle; Canis Major – to the bottom right of Orion, identified by the bright star Sirius (the brightest star in the night sky) and three stars in the shape of a triangle just above the observatory dome in the foreground; Pegasus – identified by the trapezium shape diagonally below Mars. Other constellations include Andromeda, Perseus and Aries. Diverse cultures around the world have their own names and rich stories associated with these constellations and many others.
To the top right of Orion’s Belt is an angled line of stars (Orion’s Sword) within which is a pinkish smudge (looks like a fuzzy star when observed with the unaided eye) that is the Orion Nebula – a stellar nursery located 1500 light years from Earth – where stars are formed. To the left of Taurus is a compact fuzzy smudge, and that is the Pleiades star cluster. The variation in the colour of stars is the result of temperature of the stars, for example, the red orange star to the bottom left of Orion’s Belt is the red giant star Betelgeuse. Cooler stars appear redder, compared to the higher temperature white and bluish stars. The colours in the image are enhanced because of the higher sensitivity of the digital camera compared to the human eye.
Crédit : Robert Barsa/IAU OAE
Termes du glossaire:
Bélier , Astronomie , Observatoire
Catégories :
Astronomie à l'œil nu
, Télescopes, instruments et observatoires
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Ce fichier est sur Zenodo ( image 77.18 MB)
Cen-Lup-Cru-Panorama: Centaurus Carrying the Beast and Riding Along the Milky Way
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Créé pour l'OAE
Légende : Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.
This image was taken in February 2020 in the Coquimbo Region along the northern coast of Chile. It is one of the best places on Earth for astronomical observations, thanks to its clear skies, lack of light pollution and lack of precipitation, as it is close to the Atacama desert, one of the driest places on our planet. It is no coincidence that many of the most modern professional observatories are located here. The picture shows prominent patterns visible in the southern latitudes, containing rich cultural significance for various Indigenous groups of the southern world. In the bottom of the image towards the right, the Southern Cross is prominent. The orange star at the top of the Southern Cross is called Gacrux (gamma crux). The people in Chile celebrate the beginning of winter at the beginning of May when the constellation Crux is high up in the sky; for them it is a symbol of the start of the cold season. For the festival of the Cruz de Mayo (the Great Cross), they put candles next to crosses in their villages when the constellation Crux is high. As in Christianity, the four endpoints (stars) of the cross symbolise the cardinal virtues. For some indigenous Chileans, they represent the fundamental cultural principles: force, reciprocity, wisdom, and spirituality.
Unlike modern constellations that are arrangements of several stars, Indigenous peoples sometimes associate stories with individual stars. In the case of the Southern Cross for example, the Boorong, Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali peoples of Australia refer to the star Gacrux as Bunya (the ring-tailed possum). From the Southern Cross to the left of the image are two bright stars, these are called the pointer stars (as they point to the Southern Cross). The Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali people refer to the pointer stars as the Bram-bram-bult brothers, who hunted and killed the giant Emu Tchingal. Alpha Centauri, which is the brighter and whiter of the two pointer stars, is the closest star to the Sun that we can see with our eyes, located just over four light-years away. To the bottom left of the Southern Cross is a dark nebula, which the Indigenous Australians see as the head of the Emu Tchnigal (the Coalsack Nebula). The pointers are located on the neck of the Emu. The image also shows two other IAU constellations, Centaurus (The Centaur) and Lupus (The Wolf), and HII regions of the Eta Carina Nebula (seen in pink).
Crédit : Uwe Reichert/IAU OAE
Termes du glossaire:
Constellation , Voie lactée , Croix du Sud
Catégories :
Voie lactée et milieu interstellaire
, Astronomie à l'œil nu
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Ce fichier est sur Zenodo ( image 24.14 MB)
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