Fix your camera to a tripod and you can record graceful
trails
traced by the stars as planet Earth
rotates on its axis.

If the tripod is set up at ESO's
La
Silla Observatory, high in the
Atacama desert
of Chile, your star trails would look
something like this.

Spanning about 4 hours on the night of January 24,
the image is
actually a composite of 250 consecutive 1-minute exposures,
looking toward the north.

The North Celestial Pole,
at the center of the star trail
arcs, is just below the horizon in this southern hemisphere perspective.

In the foreground, the polished 15-meter diameter dish antenna of the
Swedish-ESO Submillimeter Telescope
(now decommissioned)
shows star trails toward the south by reflection.

Sweeping around the South Celestial Pole,
the distorted arcs of those stars appear underneath the
southern horizon in the focusing dish's inverted view.

Right of the dish is the dome of the observatory's 3.6 meter
telescope, home to the planet hunting
HARPS spectrograph.

Read the full story:
La Silla Star Trails North and South

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A mere 12.5 million light-years from Earth, irregular
dwarf galaxy NGC 4449
lies within the confines of
Canes
Venatici, the constellation of the Hunting Dogs.

About the size of our Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic
Cloud, NGC 4449 is undergoing an intense episode of star formation,
evidenced by its wealth of young blue star clusters, pinkish star forming
regions, and obscuring dust clouds in
this
deep color portrait.

It's also holds the distinction of being the first
dwarf
galaxy with
an identified tidal star stream, faintly seen at the lower right.

Placing your cursor over the image reveals an inset of the
stream resolved into red giant stars.

The star stream represents
the remains of a still smaller
infalling satellite galaxy, disrupted by gravitational forces and
destined to merge with NGC 4449.

With relatively few stars, small galaxies
are thought to posses extensive dark matter halos.

But since dark matter interacts gravitationally,
these observations offer a chance to examine
the significant
role of dark matter
in galactic merger events.

The interaction is likely responsible for NGC 4449's burst of star
formation and offers a tantalizing insight into how even
small galaxies are assembled over time.

Read the full story:
NGC 4449: Star Stream for a Dwarf Galaxy

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How do stars form?

To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep
infrared
image of
Cygnus X,
the largest known star forming region in the entire
Milky Way Galaxy.

The
above recently-released image was taken in 2009 by the orbiting
Spitzer Space Telescope and digitally translated into
colors humans can see,
with the hottest regions colored the most blue.

Visible are large bubbles of hot gas inflated by the
winds of massive stars soon after they form.

Current models posit that these expanding
bubbles sweep up gas and sometimes even collide, frequently creating regions dense enough to gravitationally collapse into yet more stars.

The star factory
Cygnus-X spans over 600 light years, contains over a million times the mass of our Sun, and shines prominently on wide angle
infrared panoramas of the night sky.

Cygnus X lies 4,500 light years away towards the
constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).

In a few million years,
calm will likely be restored and a large
open cluster of stars will remain --
which itself will disperse over the next 100 million years.

Read the full story:
Cygnus-X: The Inner Workings of a Nearby Star Factory

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The star near the top is so bright that it is sometimes hard to
notice the galaxy toward the bottom.

Pictured above, both the star,
Regulus, and the galaxy,
Leo I,
can be found within one degree of each other toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo).

Regulus is part of a multiple star system, with a close companion
double star
visible to the lower left of the young main sequence star.

Leo I is a
dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the
Local Group of galaxies dominated by our
Milky Way Galaxy and
M31.

Leo I is thought to be the most distant of
the several known small satellite galaxies orbiting our
Milky Way Galaxy.

Regulus is located about 75 light years away, in contrast to Leo 1 which is located about 800,000 light years away.

Read the full story:
Bright Star Regulus near the Leo I Dwarf Galaxy

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Now appearing as planet Earth's evening star, brilliant
Venus shines
in western skies at twilight.

Standing above a rugged horizon and warm sunset colors, the
twilight's celestial beacon was joined last Saturday by a
Moon 35 hours young in
this gorgeous skyscape.

The close pairing of
Venus and Moon is known as a conjunction.

Not visible in the frame, fleeting planet Mercury has fallen
from evening skies,
sinking deeper into the sunset glow below
the young crescent Moon.

The scene was captured while trekking in northern Portugal's
Peneda-Geres National Park.

Read the full story:
Young Moon Meets Evening Star

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How do stars form?

A study of star forming region
W5 by the sun-orbiting Spitzer
Space Telescope provides clear clues by recording that massive stars near the center of empty cavities are older than stars near the edges.

A likely reason for this is that the older stars in the center are actually
triggering
the formation of the younger edge stars.

The triggered
star formation
occurs when hot outflowing gas compresses cooler gas into
knots dense
enough to gravitationally contract into stars.

Spectacular pillars,
left slowly evaporating from the hot outflowing gas,
provide further visual clues.

In the above scientifically-colored
infrared image, red indicates heated
dust, while white and green
indicate particularly dense gas clouds.

W5 is also known as
IC 1848, and
together with IC 1805
form a complex region of star formation popularly dubbed the
Heart
and Soul Nebulas.

The above image highlights a part of W5 spanning about 2,000
light years that is rich in
star forming pillars.

W5 lies about 6,500 light years away toward the
constellation of
Cassiopeia.

Read the full story:
W5: Pillars of Star Formation

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Massive star IRS 4 is beginning to spread its wings.

Born only about 100,000 years ago,
material streaming out from this newborn star
has formed the nebula dubbed Sharpless 2-106 Nebula (S106),
pictured above.

A large disk of
dust and gas orbiting
Infrared Source 4 (IRS 4), visible in dark red near the image center,
gives the nebula an hourglass or
butterfly shape.

S106 gas near IRS 4 acts as an
emission nebula
as it emits light after being
ionized, while
dust
far from
IRS 4 reflects light from the central star and so acts as a
reflection nebula.

Detailed inspection of
images like the above image has
revealed hundreds of low-mass
brown dwarf stars lurking in
the
nebula's gas.

S106 spans about 2 light-years and lies about 2000 light-years away toward the

constellation of
the Swan (Cygnus).

Read the full story:
Star Forming Region S106

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Colorful
star trails
arc across the night in this
surreal timelapse
skyscape from the Roque de los Muchachos
Observatory on the Canary island of La Palma.

A reflection
of the Earth's daily rotation on its axis,
the star trails are also reflected in one of a pair of
17 meter diameter, multi-mirrored
MAGIC telescopes.

The MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov)
telescope itself
is intended to detect gamma rays -
photons with over 100 billion times the energy of visible light.

As the high energy gamma rays impact the upper atmosphere they produce
air showers of high-energy particles.

A fast camera monitoring the multi-mirrored surface records
in detail brief flashes of optical light, called
Cherenkov
light, created by the air shower particles

Astronomers can then ultimately relate the optical flashes to
cosmic sources
of extreme gamma-rays.

Read the full story:
MAGIC Star Trails

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Why does this star have so few heavy elements?

Stars born in the
generation of our Sun have an expected abundance of elements heavier than
hydrogen and
helium mixed into their atmospheres.

Stars born in the generation before our Sun,
Population II stars, the stars that created most of the heavy elements around us today, are seen to have some, although less, elements heavier than H and He.

Furthermore, even the elusive never-seen first stars in the universe, so-called
Population III stars, are predicted to have a large mass and a small but set amount of heavy elements.

Yet low-mass Milky Way star
SDSS J102915+172927, among others, appears to have less metals than ever predicted for any stars, including at least 50 times less lithium than came out of the Big Bang.

The unusual nature of
this star, initially cataloged by the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and
pictured above, was
discovered by detailed spectroscopic observations by a large
VLT telescope in
Chile.

Many models of star formation indicate that such a
star
should not even form.

Research is ongoing, however, with one leading hypothesis
holding that fragile primordial
lithium was destroyed in the star's hot core.

Read the full story:
SDSS J102915+172927: A Star That Should Not Exist

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Stars remain where they are. Nebulas appear the same. Day after day. Year after year.

Given the vast distances in astronomy, even fast moving objects will not appear to change their appearance in a
human lifetime. Typically.

A recent spectacular exception to this, however, is the supersonic jet in the star forming
Herbig Haro 47.

HH 47 is so close -- and the jets are moving so fast -- that images from the
Hubble Space Telescope from 1994 to 2008 have been combined into a time-lapse movie that actually shows a powerful jet expanding.

Visible above, jets of plasma extending over 10,000 times the Earth-Sun distance shoot out from a forming star at speeds in excess of 150 kilometers per second.

Studying how these
jets evolve gives clues not only to how the star in HH 47 is forming, but how stars like our Sun formed billions of years ago.

HH 47 is located about 1,500 light years away toward the constellation of Sails of a Ship
(Vela).

Read the full story:
HH 47: A Young Star Jet Expands

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What's happened to the sky?

A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too.

The time
warp occurs because
this image
captured in a single frame a four hour
exposure
of the night sky.

As a result, prominent
star trails are visible.

The space warp occurs because the picture is actually a full
360 degree panorama, horizontally
compressed to fit your browser.

As the Earth rotated,
stars appeared to
circle both the South
Celestial Pole,
on the left, and the
North Celestial Pole,
just below the horizon on the right.

The image
captured the sky over
Mudgee,
New South Wales,
Australia,
including the domes of two large telescopes illuminated by red lighting.

A horizontally unwarped image is visible by clicking on the image.

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This is a solarised version of the Total Solar Eclipse filmed on the 29 March 2006 from Mamprobi Accra Ghana West Africa. I did not film the beginning of this event because I did not have the camera ready, or think it would have been such a mystical event that was about take place, I found myself directly under or close to the center of what you see in this clip. One would have to experience it to feel the vibes and see the colors. Only some of the wonders were captured for future viewing. I sol

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The first direct image of an extrasolar planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun has been confirmed.

Located just 500 light-years away toward the constellation
Scorpius,
the parent star, cataloged as 1RXS J160929.1-210524,
is only slightly less massive and a little cooler than
the Sun.

The star is, however, much younger, a few
million years old
compared to the middle-aged Sun's 5
billion years.

This sharp infrared
image shows the young star's planetary companion
positioned above and left of center.

The planet is estimated to have a mass about 8 times
the mass of Jupiter, and orbit a whopping 330 times the Earth-Sun
distance from its parent star.

The young planetary companion is still hot and relatively
bright in
infrared light, likely due to
the heat generated during its
formation by gravitational contraction.

In fact, such newborn planets
are easier to detect before they age and cool and become much more faint.

The discovery image, shown above, was taken in 2008 but
confirmed only recently
by noting that the planet stayed with its parent star as background stars slightly shifted over time.

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• Computerized auto align feature makes observing easy
• Instant access to over 4,000 celestial objects
• Common sense menu descriptions
• 700mm focal length
• 3 eyepieces (35x, 70x, and 175x)

Product Description
Includes Celestron Nexstar 60GT Telescope 1-1/4 in. 20mm (35x) 10mm (70x) and 4mm (175x) Eyepieces Computerized Hand Control StarPointer Finderscope Star Diagonal - 1-1/4 in. The Sky Level I CD-ROM NSOL Control Software Adjustable Aluminum Tripod with Accessory Tray.Amazon.com Review
Amazon.com Review The Nexstar 60GT is Celestron's most affordable computerized telescope. For a surprising price, you get a complete telescope with three eyepieces (and a finder), an adjustable tripod, and a computerized tracking system with a database of 4000 objects.

With the help of the well-illustrated manual, it takes only minutes to assemble the Nexstar 60GT and connect the batteries or optional AC adapter.

The NexStar handset is your user-friendly guide to more than 4,000 celestial objects.

Nexstar's "quick align" feature allows me to track bright objects like the moon and planets right away, but to get the most out of the tracking system the computer needs to be oriented to two bright alignment stars. Celestron includes some basic star charts, but if you don't already know a few constellations, you'll want a guide book like Nightwatch or a magazine like NightSky to introduce you to the bright alignment stars by name.

Once the Nexstar alignment is completed, the fun of seeing star clusters and planets and galaxies is as easy as pushing a few buttons. The low power 20mm eyepiece (35x) is best for viewing open star clusters and finding objects; I use the 10mm (70X) and 4mm (175X) eyepieces to zoom in on stars and planets. The planets show up quite nicely at 70x, and they're even better with a 6mm plossl eyepiece at 117x. Venus looks like a tiny crescent moon, Jupiter shows off its two major cloud bands, and Saturn's rings are sharply separated from the planet. Bright double stars also show up well. Castor, one of the twin stars in the constellation Gemini, turns out to be a double star only four arc-seconds wide. You'll need that 6mm eyepiece (117x) or the included 4mm (175x) to separate Castor into two beads of light.

Students from middle school on up will find the Nexstar 60GT just the right size. It's affordable, it's light and portable, and it's an easy introduction to the world of computerized telescopes. My first telescope, made of telescoping cardboard tubes, came from an ad in Popular Mechanics magazine. I would have been thrilled to have a telescope as good as the Nexstar 60GT. An adult with a serious interest in astronomy, however, is likely to outgrow a 60mm telescope rather quickly. It takes a larger scope to see the divisions in Saturn's rings or resolve globular clusters into individual stars; if you want that kind of detail, take a look at the telescope buyers guide for some larger ideas. --Jeff Phillips

Pros:

• Complete package is light, portable, and affordable
• Classic refractor design for good planet views up to 120x
• Nexstar computer finds planets, star clusters, and galaxies for you

Cons:

• It's small--the only way to see more detail is with a bigger telescope
• Batteries only last a few hours

Celestron Nexstar 60GT 60mm Go-To Refractor Telescope

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Dusty stellar nursery
RCW 49 surrounds young star cluster
Westerlund 2 in this remarkable composite skyscape
from beyond the visible
spectrum of light.

Infrared
data from the Spitzer Space Telescope is shown in
black and white, complimenting the Chandra
X-ray
image data (in false color) of the hot energetic stars
within the cluster's central region.

Looking toward the
grand

southern constellation
Centaurus,
both
views
reveal stars and
structures hidden from optical telescopes by obscuring dust.

Westerlund 2
itself is a mere 2 million years old or
less, and contains some of our galaxy's most luminous, massive
and therefore
short-lived stars.

The infrared signatures
of
proto-planetary disks have also been
identified in the intense star forming region.

At the cluster's estimated distance of 20,000 light-years,
the square marking the Chandra field of view would be
about 50 light-years on a side.

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The clouds surrounding the star system Rho Ophiuchus compose one of the closest star forming regions.

Rho Ophiuchus itself is a
binary star system visible in the
light-colored region on the image right.

The star system, located only 400
light years away, is distinguished by its
colorful surroundings,
which include a red
emission nebula and numerous
light and dark brown dust lanes.

Near the upper right of the Rho Ophiuchus
molecular cloud system is the yellow star
Antares, while a distant but coincidently-superposed
globular cluster of stars,
M4, is visible between Antares and the red
emission nebula.

Near the image bottom lies IC 4592, the
Blue Horsehead nebula.

The blue glow that surrounds the Blue Horsehead's eye -- and other stars around the image -- is a reflection nebula composed of fine dust.

On the
above image left is a geometrically angled reflection nebula
cataloged as
Sharpless 1.

Here, the bright star near the dust vortex creates the light of surrounding
reflection nebula.

Although most of
these features are visible through a small telescope pointed toward the constellations of
Ophiuchus,
Scorpius, and
Sagittarius, the only way to see the intricate details of the dust swirls, as featured above, is to use a
long exposure camera.

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What bizarre planet do these alien creatures inhabit?

It's only planet Earth, of course.

In this well-composed scene, the sky is filled with star
trails around the north celestial pole.

A reflection of the Earth's daily
rotation on its axis,
star trails are familiar to photographers who fix their
camera to a tripod and make long exposures
of the night sky.

But the imposing forms gazing skyward
probably look strange to many
denizens of Earth.

Found on the Canary Island of Tenerife, they are
red tajinastes,
rare flowering plants that grow to a height of up to 3 meters.

Hidden among the rocks of the volcanic terrain, tajinastes bloom in
spring and early summer and then die after their seeds mature.

On the distant horizon, below and left of the celestial pole,
lies the Teide volcano.

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