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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Stars and Dust Across Corona Australis
NASA ^ | June 27, 2011 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 06/27/2011 5:01:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

Explanation: Cosmic dust clouds sprawl across a rich field of stars in this sweeping telescopic vista near the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. Probably less than 500 light-years away and effectively blocking light from more distant, background stars in the Milky Way, the densest part of the dust cloud is about 8 light-years long. At its tip (upper right) is a group of lovely reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, and IC 4812. A characteristic blue color is produced as light from hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust. The smaller yellowish nebula (NGC 6729) surrounds young variable star R Coronae Australis. Magnificent globular star cluster NGC 6723 is toward the upper right corner of the view. While NGC 6723 appears to be part of the group, it actually lies nearly 30,000 light-years away, far beyond the Corona Australis dust clouds.

June 27, 2011


(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; coronaaustralis; science
[Credit & Copyright: Leonardo Julio (Astronomia Pampeana)]

1 posted on 06/27/2011 5:02:00 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; ...

2 posted on 06/27/2011 5:02:51 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: SunkenCiv

Another beauty! Thank You!


3 posted on 06/27/2011 5:58:57 AM PDT by left that other site
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To: SunkenCiv

Hah! Clicking through all the links at NASA is a lot of fun and answers all my questions about the picture and location of the stars listed in the description.

The APOD is a great feature, and it was wonderful of you to bring it back. Thanks again.


4 posted on 06/27/2011 8:03:27 AM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I use to be able to see that Globular Cluster (NGC 6723) from my yard, 30 years ago. No way now. My eyes are shot and light pollution is terrible.

The gas clouds weren’t on my charts back then as no one had anything bigger than an 8 inch scope, and, CoAs is always low here.

I am waiting for a good dark night this summer to take a stab at it again.


5 posted on 06/27/2011 10:22:18 AM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: SunkenCiv; TheOldLady

With all the stuff out there it makes me wonder if you can really call it a void.

Prolly gonna make any commutes a pain. Dust clouds, Oort clouds, coalsacks, asteroids, comets, planetoids, former planets, soon to be planets, ice balls, rock balls, black holes, pot holes, nebule A’s, nebule B’s...


6 posted on 06/27/2011 2:34:47 PM PDT by bigheadfred ( He put... creatures... in our bodies... to control our minds.)
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To: bigheadfred

And especially watch out for the nebule C’s! They can be rough.


7 posted on 06/27/2011 2:46:41 PM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
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To: Conan the Librarian

Back when I wanted to spend my nights stargazing, the scopes were nowhere near as good as they are now, other than specialty (expensive) stuff for academics, or hobbyist-built stuff with exquisite handmade mirrors and custom-built drives and such. Those Schmidt-Cassegrains and the like on today’s market are really dirt cheap by comparison with the stuff available back then, and have better optics, focal length, and controlling hardware. Set it up, turn it on, it figures out where on the Earth’s surface it is, and then tell it what you want to view.

And about ten years ago (uh, probably more now) the Dobsonian reflectors from Orion came out, huge things, close to being dirt cheap; and the CCDs were catching on.

I peered through the Celestron C-11 that at least used to be in the east observatory tower of the local astronomy club, and saw Saturn with its rings, just hanging out, and a little hazy (it was during the summer open house). :’)


8 posted on 06/27/2011 3:57:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: bigheadfred

It’s very, very low average density, a lot of the matter is just piled up as these nebulas, the starts, the planets, and whatnot. :’) Despite the low density, there’s quite a lot of it on any straight line in any direction from an Earth observer.

http://casswww.ucsd.edu/archive/public/tutorial/ISM.html

[snip] the interstellar medium... consists of neutral hydrogen gas (HI), molecular gas (mostly H2), ionized gas (HII), and dust grains. [/snip]

as a barely-relevant sidebar:

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/haltonarp/index


9 posted on 06/27/2011 4:30:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: left that other site; All

My pleasure!


10 posted on 06/27/2011 4:54:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: TheOldLady

Lately I’ve started just chopping out the source, straightening out a few links therein, and posting that for the Explanation and the Credit. Works a little better now.


11 posted on 06/27/2011 4:55:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: SunkenCiv

Oh! You’re a tinkerer and correcter, aren’t you Civ. You have to keep adjusting toward perfection. You’re a good list master to have in that case. No wonder you can’t let me muddle along and make do.

I feel... protected. Thanks!


12 posted on 06/27/2011 5:06:26 PM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
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To: SunkenCiv; TheOldLady
What do ya take me for????

I didn't see ANY mention of Energyzoa's. Sure, you might get consistently lucky and not vaporize yourself slamming into some rock at extreme +C speeds. But you'll forever be stopping to clean those little buggers off your windshield...

13 posted on 06/27/2011 5:36:40 PM PDT by bigheadfred ( He put... creatures... in our bodies... to control our minds.)
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To: TheOldLady

If I knew a bit more, I’d have a routine that just loaded in the page, extracted just the stuff I need, and build it into a link that would then be fed to the browser and posted. :’) Maybe I’ll hire an intern.


14 posted on 06/27/2011 5:42:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: SunkenCiv
Maybe I’ll hire an intern.

Get one that plays the hormonica.

15 posted on 06/27/2011 5:45:35 PM PDT by bigheadfred ( He put... creatures... in our bodies... to control our minds.)
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To: bigheadfred

I prefer the term, “mouth organ”.


16 posted on 06/27/2011 6:48:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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