Not sure if it my TV or Amazon Fire stick providing the closed captioning but it keeps calling Smriti Mandhana, Pretty Mandina. 😄
Western Veil nebula
A part of the Veil nebula complex from Cygnus. This is Pickering’s triangle and Witch’s broom (NGC6960). This supernova remnant glows in Halpha and Oiii frequencies which is perfect for LeXtreme narrowband filter that selects those frequencies. I have tried this image several times before but this 4 hour exposure is the best so far. There is so much detail and color of the nebula that I couldn’t capture before.
Interestingly, the bright star near Witch’s broom, 52 Cygni is at 290 light years while the veil nebula is at almost 8 times that distance at 2400 light years. This supernova happened between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. Anyone looking at the sky at that time probably saw a star much brighter than Venus.
WO ZS61 - ZWO ASI533MC-PRO - LeXtreme - 80 x 3 min - SIRIL - PS
Pretty nice morning for forest bathing. Hiked almost 5 miles and came across only 1 person. Had the whole forest to myself for rest of the time.
Hey @pratik, let me share something more impressive - The Virgo Supercluster of galaxies. I have marked about 50 in there but I am sure I have missed many. Each galaxy with hundreds of billions of stars. The width of this photo is about 10 full moons.
A part of the Veil nebula complex from Cygnus. This is Pickering’s triangle and Witch’s broom (NGC6960). #astro
So, what was the MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT by trump yesterday? Was it the trading cards? I am just being lazy and don’t want to find out myself. It is OK if no one responds to this post.
I can’t change the website listed under my profile to my mastodon account (parag@astrodon.social). All Mastodon instances are considered “malware” by Twitter now. How idiotic is that!?!?!
Only 2 working days left for me in 2022. Half of today will be at a holiday party and tomorrow will be spent in shutting down everything before the break. So, all the work for the year is pretty much done. Looking forward to 2 weeks of break.
Qatari administration is absolutely dog water. They keep showing again and again that they are as bad as saudi arabia. The Moroccan airlines had arranged for 7 extra planes for football fans to travel to Doha to be at the semi-final but, Qatar cancelled it after initially approving it.
After hearing good reviews from @ani, @supremus and @cinemapaithiyam, decided to watch “Ponniyin Selvan”. It started off by showing appearance of a comet which was supposed to mean that the king was going to die. Fine! I am OK with that given the time period of the movie. But then, halfway through the movie, they show the said comet in front of clouds in the sky. WTF!!!! If a comet gets in the Earth’s atmosphere, it is a mass exctinction event not just a dead king.
Anyway, otherwise it is a well made movie. Another problem I had was that all the men actors in the movie looked alike with their beards and long hair. It was hard for me to keep track of who is who. It is just like watching Indian cricket. All the players look identical. No such problem with women actors though and they were the reason I kept watching the movie. It was also a struggle to keep up with the plot as I was reading the subtitles while exercising. I still have an hour or so left to watch. Hopefully, I’ll finish it during the next bike ride in the basement.
Pac-Man nebula
Pacman nebula (NGC 281) is in the constellation of Cassiopeia. This bright emission nebula is at 9200 light years away in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way galaxy.
WO ZS61 - ZWO ASI533MC-PRO - LeXtreme - 50 x 3 min - SIRIL - PS
There is a lot of wildlife in the wooded areas of my work campus. Just a few months ago, there was a den of coyotes. On my walks, I always notice a lot of birds like this Red tailed hawk.
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
BY STEPHEN CRANE
Nebulosity (IC 1318) seen around the star gamma Cygni (Sadr) at bottom right. This area is aka Butterfly nebula. They appear together but the nebula and the star cluster at right edge are 3 times farther than Sadr.
WO ZS61 - ZWO ASI533MC-PRO - LeXtreme - 50 x 3 min - SIRIL - PS #astro
Last night’s performance of the Connecticut Youth Symphony was fantastic. It is exciting when there is a contemporary piece on the program. Comparing these new compositions to traditional classical music is like comparing Monalisa with something by Jackson Pollock. Both are beautiful but it takes a little effort to figure out what’s going on in the newly composed music. “Devil’s box”, a 4 movement piece by the composer Kenji Bunch who is younger than me was really lovely. First movement developed very slowly but the later movements were just rocking. The viola solo was played by one of the faculty at the university.
The second offering was more traditional - 4 movements from the New World symphony by Antonin Dvorak. This orchestra consists of all high school students and they play so well. Many of them have been playing their instruments from an early age of 4 or 5. Many will pursue music in college when they graduate from high school and go off in an year or two. Thanks to my son (for getting selected to join this fine group of youngsters), we get to enjoy this excellent music. This is the last school year for our son to be in this orchestra. We have one more concert to look forward to in May 2023.
After my daughter’s concert on Wednesday, we head off to watch my son play viola at the Connecticut Youth Symphony’s end-of-the-semester concert this evening. I really enjoy these concerts. They bring me a lot of joy.