Perfectly circular, powerful Hurricane Celia spaned hundreds of miles over the Pacific Ocean in this image from June 24, 2010. Rough-textured clouds surround the storm’s distinct eye. Farther from the center of the storm, spiral arms appear thinner and smoother. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Celia at 1:55 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 24, 2010. Just five minutes later, the U.S. National Hurricane Center classified Celia as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 135 miles per hour. Image Credit: NASA

This photo of the Planetary Nebula Abell 72 was taken on May 18-20 2010 from Novi Ligure near Alessandria in Italy.

Optics: Skywatcher Newton 254/1200 at prime focus.
Mount: Skywatcher GEM NEQ-6 SynScan 3.27.
Camera: Atik 16ic monochrome.
Filter: Ha (Astronomik) OIII (Orion Extra Narrow Band).
Autoguide: Tecnosky ED 70/420 (Orion SSAG).

Acquisition: Artemis Capture 3.1.1.
Stacking: Maxim DL.
Final: PSP XII
Dark frames: no
Flat frames: no

The photo is the stacking of 7x5m (Ha) + 8x5m (OIII).
Is also visible the faint PGC 143890 galaxy.

Valter Luna

Trifid Nebula (M20)

 By Miguel Spinelli, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Rep Argentina.

Taken 06/05/2010, 55 frames x 150 sec. at ISO1600

Meade SN6 on SW EQ5 mount autoguided + Nikon D70

What are those strange rock structures?

Centaurus and Crux Area

Local: Caxias do Sul / Brazil

Date: 23 July 2010 - 19h16min

Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1 / ISO 80 / 15 sec exposure. Enhancement: Photoshop CS4.

Tree: Araucaria Angustifolia

As humans explore the universe, the record for largest asteroid

The Witch's Broom (NGC 6960)

by Derek Bill

NGC6960 the Western Veil or affectionately "The Witch's Broom" is a supernova remnant in the Constellation Cygnus.  The bright star at the center is 52 Cygnii, a binary system.  The image was taken with an Sbig ST-8300C and is first light for this camera.  A total of 95 minutes of data was collected, with equal darks subtracted.

Jupiter 25 July 2010

by Efrain Morales Rivera

Date: 07/25/10, 08:12ut, 08:21ut

Location: Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

Equipment: LX200ACF 12 in. OTA, F25, CGE mount, DMK21AF04 Ccd, PowerMate 2.5x barlows, Astronomik LRGB filter set. 1/30th sec, 30fps, 45sec. per channel.

The Grs approching the limb, The Oval Ba trailing behind it.

NGC 6820/23 and Sh 2-86 - open cluster in Vulpecula

NGC 6883 - open cluster in Cygnus

NGC 6811 - open cluster in Cygnus

Full moon

This is an exact day and time full moon. The picture was taken on 7-26-10 at 1:37 am.

What are these humans doing?

[A classic, one of the happiest little music videos ever made. I dare you to try not to smile.]

President Barack Obama greets the STS-132 Atlantis crew and International Space Station astronaut T.J. Creamer in the Oval Office, July 26, 2010. From left, STS-132 Commander Ken Ham; Expedition 22/23 Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer; STS-132 Mission Specialists Piers Sellers, Garret Reisman, and Steve Bowen; President Obama; STS-132 Mission Specialist Michael Good; and STS-132 Pilot Tony Antonelli. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

The Trifid Nebula (M20)

by Jean-Christophe Meriaux

San Bruno, CA

Seeing 3/10 – Transparency 3/6

8″ Orion Newtonian Astrograph with Baader MPCC on Atlas mount

Autoguiding with Takahashi fs60-c and Orion auto-guider

Camera: Qhy8 with CLS CCD – 11 exposures of 360sec

More on http://messier42.us

I recently went through and reprocessed some scans of film shots I've taken over the years, and came upon this one, taken on about January 1st, 2008 (and, yes, it was very cold here in rural Wisconsin). I like it because it shows the comet as I remember it actually looking through binoculars at the time: dim but definite. You can see M34 to the right of the comet, Algol below it and a bit to the left, and Mirfak and its U-shaped asterism in the upper left of the shot.

This is a slightly cropped scan from a Nikon F body with, I think, my 50mm f/1.4 lens, stopped down to my usual f/2.8. I would have been using Fuji 400 speed Provia film (I don't recall if it was 400F or 400X). The camera was piggybacked on a scope on my Orion Atlas EQ mount.

The North America and Pelican nebulae (NGC 7000 and IC 5070)

HaRRGB image of the North American and Pelica nebulae.  Taken June 10-12 during the Golden State Star Party 2010 near Adin, CA.

Details:

Imaging scope: Takahashi FS-60CSV with dedicated reducer = f4.2
at 254mm
Imaging camera: SBIG ST-8300M
Filter wheel: Starlight Xpress 2" wheel with Baader filters

Guiding: AT66ED and DSI Pro with PHD software

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1GTO

Ha = 12 x 10m

R,G,B = 24 x 5m each
color

Aquired, calibrated, stacked, and aligned in Maxim. Processed in Photoshop CS2 with levels, curves , and AstroTools actions.

The Moon

by Jean B.

Montreal, Canada. July 22th 2010 approx. 21h00. 130mm Newtonian reflector. Shot with a Nikon D5000 reflex full manual mode with an universal photo adapter: ISO 5000, 1/250 with a X2 Barlow. Photoshop CS to increase contrast and add some artistic color.

The majestic Mare Crisium, Mare Feconditatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Serenitatis can be seen.

The Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396)

by Gordon Haynes

Taken in over 3 nights in June and July 2010 from my back garden in Hereford UK

Takahashi FSQ106ED at f5

Starlight Xpress SXVF H36

5nm Astrodon Ha, OIII and SII filters

FLI PDF focuser and filter wheel

Paramount ME

Auto guided by Starlight Xpress Lodestar and OAG using dithering

Exposures 12x20 minutes Ha, 9x20 minutes OIII and 9x20 minutes SII

Mapped to the HST palette

The North America and Pelican Nebulae (NGC 7000 & IC 5067/70)

by Gordon Haynes

Taken over 3 nights in May and June 2010 in my back garden in Hereford UK

Takahashi FSQ106ED at f5

Starlight Xpress SXVF H36

5nm Astrodon Ha, OIII and SII filters

FLI PDF focuser and filter wheel

Paramount ME

Autoguided by Starlight Xpress Lodestar and OAG using dithering

Exposures 8x20 for Ha, 9x20 minutes for OIII and SII

Mapped to HST palette

NGC 6781

by Robert Gillette

NGC 6781 is a small (1.9' x 1.9) planetary nebula in Aquila, about 2,600 LY distant.

Scope: ASA 12-inch F/3.62

Camera: StarlightXpress H9C

Exposure: 76 minutes on 20 July in central New Hampshire

Software: Acquired in MaxIm 4.62, processed in CCD Stack and CS4 with Noel Carboni actions.

The Lagoon Nebula (M8)

by Fred Herrmann

NGC 6523 - The Lagoon Nebula

7-21-10, Huntsville, AL, AP900, Tak FSQ-106, ST-10XME, 76 min Ha-LRGB

I took this shot on a recent family holiday in Brittany. I used a Canon EOS20D, Samyang 8mm/f3.5 fisheye and 143 x 30 second sub-exposures stacked in Achim Schaller's [url=http://www.startrails.de/]Startrails application[/url]. I used the flash from my Sony cybershot to help illuminate the foreground.

The Lagoon Nebula (M8)

by Mark Guinn

• Telescope: AT8IN "8 Newtonian with Baader MPCC
• Filters: Astronomik EOS CLS-Clip
• Camera: Gary Honis modified Canon RebelXSi
• Exposure: 32x4 minutes @ ISO800 Daylight WB
• Software: PHD Guiding, DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop CS4, Noise Ninja
• Location: Fowler, Michigan
• Date: July 3, 2010