ASTRONOMY - Scorpius Enhanced

 2021 June 16

Scorpius Enhanced
Image Credit & Copyright: Stefan Lenz

Explanation: If Scorpius looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better. Scorpius more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well-known but rarely pointed out zodiacal constellation. To get a spectacular image like this, though, one needs a good camera, a dark sky, and some sophisticated image processing. The resulting digitally-enhanced image shows many breathtaking features. Diagonal across the image right is part of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Visible there are vast clouds of bright stars and long filaments of dark and intricate dust. Rising vertically on the image left are dark dust bands known as the Dark River. Several of the bright stars on the left are part of Scorpius' head and claws, and include the bright star Antares. Numerous red emission nebulas, blue reflection nebulas, and dark filaments became visible as the deep 17-hour expo image developed. Scorpius appears prominently in southern skies after sunset during the middle of the year.

I-PHONE ASTUCES - Désactiver l’accusé de lecture

Désactiver l’accusé de lecture « lu » dans les messages Savez-vous que tout le monde peut voir si vous avez bien reçu et lu un iMessage ? Pour désactiver l'accusé de réception et de lecture, allez sur Réglages > Messages et désactivez "Confirmation de lecture".

ASTRONOMY - Zhurong: New Rover on Mars

 2021 June 15

Zhurong: New Rover on Mars
Image Credit: China National Space Administration

Explanation: There's a new rover on Mars. In mid-May, China's Tianwen-1 mission delivered the Zhurong rover onto the red planet. As Mars means Planet of Fire in Chinese, the Zhurong rover's name means, roughly, God of Fire in Chinese mythology. Zhurong landed in northern Utopia Planitia, the largest known impact basin in the Solar System, and an area reported to have much underground ice. Among many other scientific instruments, Zhurong carries ground-penetrating radar that can detect ice buried even 100-meters deep. Car-sized Zhurong is pictured here next to its landing base. The image was snapped by a remote camera deployed by the rolling rover. Zhurong's planned 90-day mission includes studying the geology, soil, and atmosphere of Mars in Utopia Planitia.

AERONAUTIQUE - Ces merveilleux fous volants dans leur drôle de machine

AUTOMOBILE - Jaguar XJ220

"Jaguar XJ220"

ASTRONOMY - Eclipse du soleil vue depuis Montreal

ASTRONOMY - Eclipse Flyby

 2021 June 11

Eclipse Flyby
Image Credit & Copyright: Zev Hoover, Christian Lockwood, and Zoe Chakoian

Explanation: On June 10 a New Moon passed in front of the Sun. In silhouette only two days after reaching apogee, the most distant point in its elliptical orbit, the Moon's small apparent size helped create an annular solar eclipse. The brief but spectacular annular phase of the eclipse shows a bright solar disk as a ring of fire when viewed along its narrow, northerly shadow track across planet Earth. Cloudy early morning skies along the US east coast held gorgeous views of a partially eclipsed Sun though. Rising together Moon and Sun are captured in a sequence of consecutive frames near maximum eclipse in this digital composite, seen from Quincy Beach south of Boston, Massachusetts. The serendipitous sequence follows the undulating path of a bird in flight joining the Moon in silhouette with the rising Sun.

I-PHONE ASTUCES - Comment améliorer la luminosité

Augmenter la luminosité quand vous prenez une photo Savez-vous qu'il est possible d'améliorer la luminosité quand vous prenez une photo ? Cette fonction est bien pratique si vous faites une photo dans un endroit sombre avec peu de lumière. Ou si, à l'inverse, vous voulez diminuer la luminosité pour une photo prise en contre-jour. Pour cela, touchez l'écran n'importe où, puis glissez votre doigt vers le haut pour augmenter la luminosité ou vers le bas pour la baisser.

AERONAUTIQUE - Drôles de machines - Zoom Climb

ASTRONOMY - A Total Lunar Eclipse Corona

 2021 June 9

A Total Lunar Eclipse Corona
Image Credit & Copyright: Helmut Eder

Explanation: This moon appears multiply strange. This moon was a full moon, specifically called a Flower Moon at this time of the year. But that didn't make it strange -- full moons occur once a month (moon-th). This moon was a supermoon, meaning that it reached its full phase near its closest approach to the Earth in its slightly elliptical orbit. Somewhat strange, a supermoon appears a bit larger and brighter than the average full moon -- and enables it to be called a Super Flower Moon.  This moon was undergoing a total lunar eclipse. An eclipsed moon can look quite strange, being dark, unevenly lit, and, frequently, red -- sometimes called blood red. Therefore, this moon could be called a Super Flower Blood Moon. This moon was seen through thin clouds. These clouds created a faint corona around the moon, making it look not only strange, but colorful. This moon was imaged so deeply that the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, far in the background, was visible to its lower right. This moon, this shadow, this galaxy and these colors were all captured last month near Cassilis, NSW, Australia -- with a single shot. (Merged later with two lower shots that better capture the Milky Way.)