Tag: Samhain

A Mid-Autumn Moon Leaves Evening, Planets Dance, Jupiter Peaks and the Demon Fades While the Bull Shoots Stars, and the Owl Hoots!

NGC 457, better known as the Owl Cluster, ET Cluster, and Dragonfly Cluster, was imaged by “Astrodoc” Ron Brecher of Guelph, Ontario. The bright stars are the eyes. The body and feet extend down to the right. Squint to see the upswept, curving chains of stars for the wings.This image covers a finger’s width of…
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The Moon Looms During Evening, the Mid-Autumn Sky Spits Spooky Sparks, Mars Mounts its Attack, and Jupiter Sports Spots!

NGC 457, better known as the Owl Cluster, ET Cluster, and Dragonfly Cluster, was imaged by “Astrodoc” Ron Brecher of Guelph, Ontario. The bright stars are the eyes. The body and feet extend down to the right. Squint to see the upswept, curving chains of stars for the wings. This image covers a finger’s width…
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The Moon’s Mostly Missing Crescent Covers Planets, See Ceres Crossing Star-Shooting Taurus, and Aquarius’ Lucky Stars!

This colour-composite image of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) was created from images obtained using the Wide Field Imager camera on the 2.2-metre ESO telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile. The colours arise from a shell of gases energized by the radiation of the tiny central star. This image spans the same diameter…
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Inner Planets at Their Outer Range, and a Moonless Middle-night Hosts Halloween Treats!

The faint Witch’s Head Nebula aka NGC 1909 and IC 2118, is a ghostly reflection nebula near the bright star Rigel in Orion. It’s very large – stretching nearly three finger widths from her chin to her forehead! Image by Jeff Signorelli, NASA APOD for Oct 30, 2015 Happy Halloween week, Stargazers! Here are your…
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A Puny Blue Blood Halloween Moon marks Mid-Autumn, and Bright Planets on View from Evening to Dawn!

These images of the full moon by Michael Watson of Toronto perfectly illustrate the size difference between a perigee “supermoon” and an apogee “punymoon”. The image on the right will very closely conform to the appearance of the full moon on Halloween night – when the moon will actually be about 10 hours past full…
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