We all know space is big, but just how far from home have we ventured through spaceships and probes? It can be a little difficult to comprehend, but NASA can help you there with the fantistic “Eyes on the Solar System” interactive guide.

Where do you want to go? Zoom in, pick a target and explore! Credit: NASA/JPL/California Institute of Technology

Zoom out from Earth to see the Moon, and the devices we’ve launched to study it. Go out further and visit Mars, then out to the gas giants, all in 3 dimensions which give a superb feeling of depth and scale. But not only can you visit the planets, you can see just where the Pioneer’s have got to, where the Voyager probes currently are, and any comets, asteroids and near-earth objects which are currently passing by.

For anyone who wants to be guided around particular categories of objects (or particular missions i.e. GRAIL), there are a number of feature tours you can take, and all of them are fascinating!

Voyager looking back at us - Click to visit "Eyes on the Solar System" - Credit: NASA/JPL/California Institute of Technology

If you got 5 minutes to spare it’s well worth a look, and you may find that 5 minutes extends by quite some time…

Enjoy! Click the image above or here to visit NASA’s “Eyes on the Solar System”

There are some things we’ll always take the time to watch, and as timelapse is a passion of ours for your enthrallment below is a recent creation from photographer Eric Hines.

We’ve featured some of Eric’s work before; his breathtaking images of the Milky Way at Devil’s Tower and a fantastic timelapse he released in September called Wild Wyoming, A Summer of Sunsets and Dark Skies.

If only we could all live under such clear skies! Go HD and fullscreen for the full effect!

Fall Timelapse Collection from Eric Hines on Vimeo.

Fall Timelapse Collection
by Eric Hines

About this video:

Shot entirely on the 5D Mark II in RAW format, with the exception of one video clip. All single exposures, no HDR.

Almost all of these shots have not been used in earlier reels, and a lot of the sequences were shot within the past month* in Indiana.

Motion control provided by the Kessler Crane KC-8 and Cineslider, using the Oracle and Smartlapse. The static sequences were shot on the Manfrotto 546B tripod with a 501HDV head.

Track is “Outpost 31″ by Simon Wilkinson available from thebluemask.com

You can find Eric on the following networks:
Google+
Facebook
Twitter
(links open in new tab)

*video posted in early November

And you can follow us on Twitter too

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When it comes to astrophotography, occasionally I get a break and things go well. I should probably state from the offset that getting perfect scope alignment is nigh on impossible due to my house being in the way of Polaris! That doesn’t mean I haven’t got close but it does mean I still get some object drift across the field of view.

That hasn’t put me off trying though, and after watching the first episode of the recent Stargazing LIVE (on the BBC) I set up my scope and took advantage of the clear night sky. First off was a look at M42 the Orion Nebula, which I’ve imaged before but thought I’d have another look as the conditions were so good!

M42 the Orion Nebula with faint M43 Nebula top left (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

For the first time I caught some of the faint nebula M43 to the top left of the image, and you can also see the stars that make up the Trapezium cluster in the centre of M42. Of all the things I’ve seen since I got my telescope, the Orion Nebula will always remain a favourite. Beautiful!

I next looked towards M1, the Crab Nebula, which I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to see through the light polluted skies over where I live. To my surprise the stacked images clearly define the shape of the nebula.

M1 the Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant in the constellation Taurus (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Because I know now that I can find M1 and image it I’m hoping to try again soon using a 2x magnifying barlow lens, to see if any more details can be caught!

Passing back through Orion I aimed now towards the Rosette Nebula. I was sure it would appear too large in my camera’s field of view, but as star cluster NGC 2244 is at the centre I was hopeful I’d be able to get some details.

NGC 2244 is an open cluster of stars in the heart of the Rosette Nebula (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The stars of the open cluster shine brightly, surrounded by the gas and dust that make up the Rosette Nebula. You can even make out some of the darker lanes to the top right of the cluster.

By now it was into morning, and the prospect of getting up for work in a few hours was pushed from my mind. I was having too much fun and was sure I was getting some good results. So I decided to stay out in the cold a while longer and push my luck. I’d imaged the Andromeda Galaxy in October last year, but could I get two galaxies in the same image?

Two for the price of one! Galaxies M96 (left) and M95 (right) in the same shot (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Despite being small in the image, you can clearly make out the spiral shapes of both galaxies, M96 and M95, located in the constellation Leo. M96 is the closer of the two at 31 million light-years away, with M95 being 38 million light-years away.

The cold was setting in now and dew was beginning to build up, but I thought I’d try one more target and see what happened.  It was already 3 hours past when I should have gone to bed, what difference would another half hour make?!

Messier 37 is the richest open cluster in the constellation Auriga (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The M37 open cluster is roughly 300 million years old and contains over 500 stars (many of insufficient magnitude to be seen in this image). The camera finished clicking away as the battery warning light started flashing, and I could see dew building up on the scope’s mirror so I finally called it a night. I’d taken over 10 gigabytes worth of images and now had the stacking to look forward to.

So I finally got them all finished and they’re now here for your perusal   Was it worth the 3 hours sleep I got and the tough day at work that followed? Most definitely!

To not only see these sights with my own eyes, but to capture them in pictures too has more than justified the cost of the scope and camera as far as i’m concerned, and there can only be more to come!

Thank you to Stargazing LIVE for inspiring the nation (and me to stay up way too late!), we hope we can help keep the interest going!

Equipment used:
Unmodified Canon EOS 550D (with T-Ring)
Sky-Watcher Explorer 200P EQ5 PRO SynScan 200mm Newtonian Reflector Telescope
Intervalometer
DeepSkyStacker Software

On 1 February NASA released the first video from GRAIL, its newest moon mission. As part of the mission twin spacecraft Ebb and Flow are orbiting the moon, and Ebb has captured a video of the moon’s far side. Awesome!

The Gravity Recover and Interior Laboratory or GRAIL for short consists of two robotic probes – GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B (named Ebb and Flow by school children in January 2012). The probes are orbiting the moon in tandem, using variations in the radio signals between them to help study the moon’s gravity with the overall goal of the mission understanding more about the formation of our solar system.

GRAIL is the first robotic planetary mission to carry equipment for the sole purpose of education. One piece of equipment that both probes carry is a MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students), which will allow students (in the U.S) to study specific parts of the moon helping inspire them to consider careers in science and engineering.

Thumbs up to NASA on this one.

Find out more about GRAIL here.

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It’s been a while since I posted anything, and it’s early in the morning, so something nice and easy for everyone.

Moonset from the ISS.

“On January 9, 2012, astronauts on the International Space Station took this amazing footage of the moon setting behind the Earth’s limb. Air near the horizon is thicker, and acts like a lens. That bends the light from the bottom of the Moon up, squashing the Moon’s shape as you watch! “

source: Bad Astronomy