Larry the Engineer

JNCE_2019202_21C00017_V01 NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Jupiter - PJ21-17 - Detail - From Kevin M. Gill (kevinmgill.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2gFmvSi

This true color view of Titan was snapped by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) while it was looking at Titan's haze layers from 1.42 million kilometers (0.88 million miles) away. This composite is made of images that were taken on October 31, 2015 and received on Earth November 01, 2015. The camera was pointing toward TITAN, and the images were taken using the red, green, blue and ultraviolet filters. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans about.me/valerieklavans

Titan’s Halloween Ring - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/AHX3wa

Test image of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) with the first light of my new ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera and broad-band filters. This image combines: - 39 x 120s H-alpha (Baader 3.5nm ultra-narrow filter), in red. Darks and flats included. - 40 x 15s OPTOLONG L-Pro filter, in green. No flat or darks. - 56 x 6s ZWO B filter, in blue, no flat or dark. H-alpha data taken on 21st Aug 2020, L-Pro and B data taken on 23rd Aug 2020, from my backyard at home, 15 km North from Sydney's city center. Telescope: Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, f=600mm (f/7.5) Equipment: I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope). ZWO filter drawer for changing filter. Processing: Data processed with Siril software. FITS converted on TIFF using NASA's Fits Liberator considering a logarithmic function. Color / saturation / levels / contrast / smart sharpen with Photoshop. Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).

The Lagoon Nebula from Sydney - From Ángel López-Sánchez - https://flic.kr/p/2jzxued

ESP_032118_1085 - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/fcHGWD

The Remote Micro-Imager (RMI), part of ChemCam instrument aboard Curiosity rover, is a telescope which provides high resolution pictures for close and remote targets. On sol 4667 (September 22th, 2025), RMI has imaged the 3.5 kilometer distant cliffs in the Yardang Unit of Gale crater, Mars. The steep cliff on the center of the image is approximately 39 meters high. This is one of the most impressive pictures taken by RMI during MSL mission.

Zooming on the steep cliffs of the Yardang Unit - Curiosity, sol 4667 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2rvUUuc

Opportunity MARS NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / j. Roger

Opportunity (55) - From Jacint Roger (landru79.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2iKY3b5

XZ Tauri is the spiky star nearest to center. HST_9863_01_ACS_WFC_F625W_sci HST_9863_01_ACS_WFC_F658N_sci

XZ Tauri - From Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/bD4UR7

NASA/j.Roger

VESTA DAWN - From Jacint Roger (landru79.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2iKCmTX

JunoCam image of a swirl and convective system located within Jupiter's north temperate belt. This is a portion of image #113 taken during the Perijove 6 imaging campaign on May 19, 2017. This image is processed using Gerald Eichstädt's processed version as a base. NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Justin Cowart

Swirls in the North Temperate Zone - Juno - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/V52V7X

I have to say that as far as Hubble exposures of planetary nebulas go, IC 1454 is not the most visually rewarding. I've searched for some amateur astrophotography pictures and it seems a bit better suited for that. It's big and diffuse and pretty blurry up close. It also seems somewhat faint. Anyway, the data had a fairly low s/n ratio but I figured I'd try it anyway. I used to hate the median filter but I'm beginning to see some merits to it in certain situations. It definitely helped smooth out the noise without destroying details, which I masked off, retaining the integrity of the little stars and that smudge which I believe is a background galaxy. There are some neat planetary nebulas which are simply perfect round circles or bubbles but they are usually too big to fit on a single WFPC2 exposure. By dumb luck it seems this one wasn't quite aimed correctly on the first attempt which resulted in me being able to create a slightly more complete picture of it. Red: hst_07501_10_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci + hst_07501_10_wfpc2_f658n_wf_sci + hst_07501_60_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci + hst_07501_60_wfpc2_f658n_wf_sci Green:hst_07501_10_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci + hst_07501_10_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci + hst_07501_60_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci + hst_07501_60_wfpc2_f555w_wf_sci Blue: hst_07501_10_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci + hst_07501_10_wfpc2_f502n_wf_sci + hst_07501_60_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci + hst_07501_60_wfpc2_f502n_wf_sci North is NOT up, it's 36.5° degrees counter-clockwise from up.

IC 1454 - From Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/hcLkHu

Another large mosaic of Jupiter taken by Voyager 1 on March 1st, 1979, over an 18-minute period. The frame is centered on the ocher Equatorial Zone, bounded by Equatorial Belts to the north (right) and south (left). The observation is listed as "TWO COLOR (O,V) 2X3 NA MOSAIC + 6 WA (G,V,O; CH4; V,G)" _______________ Credit: NASA/JPL/OPUS/Ian Regan

1979-03-01 --6-15-- 2X3 NA MOSAIC OV - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/2kze81L

This dramatic pair of interacting galaxies are located in the southern constellation Fornax (The Furnace). The largest, NGC 1316, is also known as Fornax A, meaning it is the brightest radio source in Fornax (also the fourth brightest in the entire sky). The strong radio emission originates from its central supermassive black hole. Visible near its bright centre are many concentric shells that are remnants of past mergers with other galaxies. The formation of such shells are a common observation in computer simulations of merging galaxies. The shells form when the cores of merging galaxies orbit around their common centre of mass in an ever tighter orbit while disrupting the halos of both galaxies and sending billions of stars into eccentric orbits. This process creates outward travelling density waves until the collision eventually settles as one single larger galaxy. Other prominent galaxies display similar shells and one of the finest examples is Centaurus A The halo of the galaxy is very distorted and shows many prominent tidal tails and swirls of stars which have likely been ejected by a previous merger event. The next collision appears to be lining up already, with the smaller elegantly shaped spiral companion NGC 1317 already appearing somewhat disturbed by the pull from its more massive neighbour. A few billion years from now it will likely have been completely devoured by NGC 1316; its stars being spread throughout the realms of the large elliptical and leaving...

Colliding Galaxy Pair NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 in Fornax - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/KECMvS

This mosaic of terrain near Titan's south pole is a combination of radar swathes collected by the Cassini SAR instrument during the following flybys: T-39, T-57, T-58, T-65, and T-98. The seams in the original dataset were carefully removed, and the swathes stacked to reduced spurious noise and improve detail. Areas that were cover by only a single radar swath were subjected to careful noise reduction procedures. Numerous hydrocarbon lakes are visible: the three largest, from left to right, are: Tsomgo Lacus, Crveno Lacus, and the footprint-shaped Ontario Lacus. A prominent sinuous channel can be seen merging with Ontario: this presumed river is called Saraswati Flumen. ___________________________ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Ian Regan

Titan: Ontario Lacus and environs (T-39, T-57, T-58, T-65, T-98) - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/LXdTPy

Instrument: PARACHUTE UPLOOK CAMERA A EAE_0000_0666952761_748EDR_N0000000EDLC00020_0000LUJ01 LMST: Sol-00000M15:50:28.59734 Start time: 2021-02-18 20:40:52 UTC Height above ellipsoid: 10192 m Height above landing: 12429 m Speed: 1542 km/h This image was processed to approximate the colors that the human eye would see. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß CC BY

Perseverance Parachute Uplook Camera A - From Simeon Schmauß (stim3on.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2qMvPMx

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

MSL Sol 2813 - MastCam - From Kevin M. Gill (kevinmgill.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2jj6jGf

This HiRISE image shows a mixture of bright and dark terrain along the plains just west of Ganges Chasma. The concentration of these bright patches adjacent to an old impact crater suggests that the bright patches could represent ejecta from when the crater formed. This would be an interesting discovery because it would mean that a different unit underlies the surface we now see. Alternatively, much of the plains in this region appear to have a dark surface cover, probably wind-blown debris. Where this darker debris has been removed by the wind, the underlying brighter substrate would be exposed. Image is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and is 261 km (162 mi) above the surface. For full image including scale bars, visit the source link. www.uahirise.org/ESP_020061_1720 NASA/JPL/UArizona

Bright and Dark Plains near Ganges Chasma - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2mJYKVZ

Magic is not a fan of photos

Eroded ejecta deposits associated with the 18 km wide Dulovo Crater. This crater is located near the southern rim of the 1500 km wide Isidis impact basin. The impact site is near the Martian dichotomy boundary, which separates the ancient terrain of Mars' southern hemisphere from the much younger lowlands of the northern hemisphere. The northern lowlands are thought to have once hosted an ocean, evidence of which might be recorded in Dulovo's ejecta. The crater's ejecta is a type called fluidized ejecta, which contains flow-like structures. This type of ejecta is thought to have formed in rocks rich in low-melting point materials, such as dry ice or water ice. Erosional remnats of the fluidized ejecta are visible has high-standing lobes of material running through image center. The more rugged rock, which is likely older rock buried and preserved by the ejecta sheet, appear to contain clay minerals. This image was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data. This image was taken on January 2, 2007. It uses CRISM observation FRT00003B63 and CTX observation P03_002044_1836_XI_03N275W. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart

Dulovo Crater - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kfsBAq

This image combines 50 x 1" exposures, ISO 800, obtained with my CANON 5D Mark III attached at primary focus of my Skywatcher Black Diamond 80mm f600mm (F/7.5) during the Total Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday 26 May 2021, between 9:00pm and 9:04pm, Sydney local time. The frames were manually aligned with Photoshop, then extracted as new frames to Lynkeos, that did the fine alignment. Drizzling x2 was also used. Then the combined image was taken to Photoshop, where the colour, highlights/shadows, and contrast were tuned. This got only the image of the eclipsed moon. Additionally, I combined the full 266 x 1" images I took during totality using Siril to get the stellar background. They two combined frames (eclipsed moon + stars) were combined with Photoshop with a bit of extra tuning to get a nice background. The image taken at 9:03pm was used as reference for the alignment. All the data were taken during the 4 hours ONLINE event "Conversaciones astronómicas bajo la luna eclipsada" that I organised with the "Red Andaluza de Astronomía" (RAdA), "Agrupación Astronómica de Córdoba" (AAC), "Asociación de Lengua y Cultura Española" (ALCE) de Australia and the "Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific" (SRAP-IEAP), that was followed by many schools in Spain. I also want to thank Alicia Lozano (RAdA), Héctor Socas-Navarro (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias), María Ribes (Universidad de Alicante) and Alberto Aparici (In...

Total Lunar Eclipse - 26 May 2021 - From Ángel López-Sánchez - https://flic.kr/p/2m1PLyZ

"Once I got into space, I was feeling very comfortable in the universe. I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet." —Astronaut Mae Jemison Saturnshine & Jupitershine on Strawberry Reservoir, Utah

Saturnshine & Jupitershine - From Bill (ridingrobots.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2jaUcwu

Combination of 8 images taken during January and March 2019 showing different phases of the Moon. These images, with many more not shown here, are part of a educational exercise conducted with my son, Luke, who was 6 years old then (Year 1), and who actually took all the photos. Each image combines ~150 frames, all taken with my Skywatcher Black Diamond 80mm, f/7.5, using my CANON EOS 5D Mark III at primary focus, from Freshwater, Sydney. The data were stacked using the free Lynkeos software, and then processed with Photoshop to increase the shadows/highlights, correct colour, smart sharpen for getting a better contrast of the craters, and luminosity. Credit: Luke López Planells (Year 1, Manly West Primary School) & Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University)

The phases of the Moon - From Ángel López-Sánchez - https://flic.kr/p/2jZGaow

Anything else I can do for you?

This is the image that has my attention ATM.

NASA image acquired: March 29, 2011 MESSENGER acquired this image of Mercury's horizon as the spacecraft was moving northward along the first orbit during which MDIS was turned on. Bright rays from Hokusai can be seen running north to south in the image. MDIS frequently acquired images that contained Mercury's horizon during the mission's three Mercury flybys. (Visit these links to see examples of horizon images from Mercury flyby 1, Mercury flyby 2, and Mercury flyby 3.) However, now that MESSENGER is in orbit about Mercury, views of Mercury's horizon in the images will be much less common. The field of view for MDIS will generally be filled with Mercury's surface as the instrument maps out the planet's geology in high resolution, stereo, and color. Occasionally, in order to obtain images of a certain portion of Mercury's surface, the horizon will also be visible. On March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011, UTC), MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. The mission is currently in its commissioning phase, during which spacecraft and instrument performance are verified through a series of specially designed checkout activities. In the course of the one-year primary mission, the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation will unravel the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the science questions that the MESSENGER mission has set out ...

From Orbit, Looking toward Mercury's Horizon - From Goddard Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/9uNkEs

Enceladus NAC view, 640 000 km distance, 164 deg phase. 2009-03-21 RED+BL1 composite. The brightness of the background and Enceladus' disk is due to the E ring particles forward-scattering light. N1616349558

Badly Framed #2 - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/7szMxf

Scene from a Massive Pit in Hydrae Chasma Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona (Less than 5 km across. www.uahirise.org/ESP_013033_1730)

ESP_013033_1730 - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/Dt47RK

Image created processing data found on: mrbrowse.issdc.gov.in/MOMLTA/ This includes 4 images in one showing Phobos in its 4 different positions. ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission - Mars Colour Camera Mission Name = MARS1 Targer: Phobos Date: 2014-10-14 Altitude: 16019 km - 16074 km Filters: Bayer Filter Producer ID: MR1-ISRO-SAC-DP-TEAM Product IDs: MCC_MEB_20141014T112535853_D_GDS Time: 2014-10-14T11:25:35.853 MCC_MEB_20141014T112547853_D_GDS Time: 2014-10-14T11:25:47.853 MCC_MEB_20141014T112559854_D_GDS Time: 2014-10-14T11:25:59.854 MCC_MEB_20141014T112610854_D_GDS Time: 2014-10-14T11:26:10.854 Credit: ISRO/ISSDC/MOM/AndreaLuck MOM Data Usage Terms And Conditions on mrbrowse.issdc.gov.in/MOMLTA/ For Data Usage Terms and Conditions info contact: issdc@istrac.gov.in ------------------------------------ Terms and conditions for data access (a) All the users have to register in ISSDC MOM portal for downloading the data. (b) All the users should abide to the data policy guidelines, which will be augmented or modified by ISRO as and when necessary. (c) Re-distribution of the data on profit or non-profit basis is strictly restricted. Disclaimer (a) MOM data sharing is open and free of charge for non-profit scientific use. (b) All the data received from MOM remains the property of ISRO and ISRO holds the copyright for the entire set of data received from MOM. (c) ISRO also reserves the right to use any data from any instrument for Education and Public Outreach purposes. (d) The ...

Phobos over Mars - Sequence - Utopia Planitia & Syrtis Major - ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2oYemRA

Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula called the Red Spider Nebula, located some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometers (62.4 billion miles) high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image. Image credit: ESA/Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands) NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Hubble Spins a Web Into a Giant Red Spider Nebula - From Goddard Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/MstrGe

RGB false color composite from the Titan (T-89) Flyby, in infrared, visible (blue), and ultraviolet filters. (From Rev181) The green-ish areas on the top center correspond to Titan's vast dune desert, in Belet. Just to the right is a region called Adiri (Huygens landed off the northeastern edge of Adiri in 2005.) In addition, Titan's south polar vortex can be seen at the bottom of the image. More detailed information: These images were taken on February 18, 2013 and received on Earth February 19, 2013. The camera was pointing toward TITAN at approximately 519,747 miles (836,452 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the CL1, CL2, BL1, UV3 and CB3 filters. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / composite by Val Klavans

Titan in Infrared, Blue & Ultraviolet Light - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/dWuGsd