Astronomy Picture of the Day 5-26-02

NASA ^ | 5-26-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 May 26

The Pipe Dark Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Jerry Lodriguss

Explanation: The dark nebula predominant at the lower left of the above photograph is known as the Pipe Nebula. The dark clouds, suggestively shaped like smoke rising from a pipe, are caused by absorption of background starlight by dust. These dust clouds can be traced all the way to the Rho Ophiuchi nebular clouds on the right. The brightest star in the field is Antares. Many types of nebula are highlighted here: the red are emission nebula, the blue are reflection nebula, and the dark are absorption nebula. This picture has been digitally enhanced.

[petuniasevan]

This nebula lies in the direction of the galactic hub. Lots of these dusty "dark" nebulae lie between us and the center of the Milky Way; thus, we cannot see the hub in visible light. We can detect it in radio waves, infrared, x-rays and gamma rays.

Get on the APOD PING list!

[petuniasevan]

APOD PING!

[herewego]

just wow!!

[2Trievers]

Awasome sight!

FYI, the westcoast gets a Penumbral Eclipse of the moon tonight. Lucky ducks! &;-)

[petuniasevan]

Yes, too bad you're in the northeast.

Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon, 2002 May 26; the beginning of the penumbral phase visible in most of North America except the northeast, Central America, western South America, extreme northeast Russia, eastern Asia, Australia, most of Antarctica, the Pacific Ocean, and the southeast Indian Ocean; the end visible in southwestern Alaska, Asia except the extreme north, Australia, the eastern Indian Ocean, and most of the Pacific Ocean except the extreme eastern part.

                               d   h   m
Moon enters penumbra     May  26  10 12.7
Middle of eclipse             26  12 03.3  UT
Moon leaves penumbra          26  13 53.8

Magnitude of the eclipse:   0.715      

Times are Universal (Greenwich Mean).
Subtract 4 hours for Eastern Daylight Time, 5 hours for CST, 6 hours for MST, and 7 hours for PST.
Subtract 10 hours for Hawaii Daylight Time.
Alaska is in summer daylight now; they miss out, except perhaps the panhandle: subtract 8 hours for ADT.

[petuniasevan]

[2Trievers]

"Yes, too bad you're in the northeast."

Truer words were never spoken! &;-)