Whale Breaks Off

The James Webb Space Telescope lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, at 13:20 CET on 25 December on its exciting mission to unlock the secrets of the Universe.

ESA/CNES/Arianespace

Milky Way Paradise by Ian Inverarity

Alignment of the Elements

calibreus

Mongolia Gobi desert by Daniel Kordan

“I will never get tired of night hiking and photographing our Galaxy! The Milky over the Adirondacks in NY [OC][1393x2048]”

By Reddit user: u/DanielJStein

IC 1805, Within The Heart

Stunning New Images of Jupiter From NASA’s Juno Spacecraft (read article here)

Rippling dust and gas lanes are what give the Flaming Star Nebula its name. The orange and purple colors of the nebula are present in different regions and are created by different processes. The bright star AE Aurigae, visible toward the middle of the image to the left, is so hot it is blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from surrounding gas. When a proton recaptures an electron, red light is frequently emitted (depicted here in orange). The purple region's color is a mix of this red light and blue light emitted by AE Aurigae but reflected to us by surrounding dust. The two regions are referred to as emission nebula (the orange portion) and reflection nebula (the purple portion).

Pictured here in the Hubble color palette, the Flaming Star Nebula, officially known as IC 405, lies about 1500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).



Image Credit & Copyright: Eric Coles and Mel Helm

Milky Way at Boddington, Western Australia

Nikon d5500 - 50mm - ISO 4000 - f/3.2 - Foreground: 7 x 15 seconds - Sky: 26 x 30 seconds - iOptron SkyTracker - Hoya Red Intensifier filter

I gave a try at shooting the sky above my new house around Nice, France. That's a 10s exposure. Quite satisfied as light pollution is not as bad as what I thought.