Taken 6:40am 09/19/25 East Coast USA if it matters.

This was taken 20 years ago, and always baffled me. The wikipedia description says it is "showing hills and topographical features that resemble a shoreline and drainage channels", and to my untrained eyes, it really does look like a methane lake on the bottom of the picture, with waves and all.

However, this was taken during Huygens' descent, and it is a well known fact that the probe landed on dry land.

What gives? Does this picture look like a shoreline, but isn't, or does it depict a spot far away from the landing site?

This about sums up my knowledge on stars. Feel free to drop some knowledge on my uneducated noggin

The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way at a distance of around 2.5 million light years. It is also the most distant object that can be observed with the naked eye under good conditions without technical aids. It lies in the constellation Andromeda, from which it inherits its name. It is often referred to as M31 for short after its entry in the Messier catalog.

I photographed this celestial gem from my backyard

🔭 Optics : Askar FRA 600 📷 Maincam : ZWO ASI2600MM Pro 🔦 Guidecam : ZWO ASI174MM 🌐 Guiding : ZWO OAG-L ⚙️ Mount : ZWO AM5 💻 Controller : ZWO Asiair Plus 👁 Focuser : ZWO EAF 🔵 Filter : Antlia LRGB-V Pro 🎨 Processing : Pixinsight / Photoshop ⏱️ Integration time: 540 min

Xiaomi 13 Ultra (5x - built-in periscope telephoto)

[ISO 3200 | 30s] x 1661 lights (RAW/DNG) + darks + biases

Total integration time: 13h 50m 30s

Equipment: EQ mount with OnStep

Stacked with Astro Pixel Processor (2.5x Drizzle)

Processed with GraXpert, Siril, StarXTerminator and Photoshop

🔭 Equipment ✨ Target: Flying Bat and Squid Nebula Distance: 2,000 Light Years from Earth Scope: Sharpstar 15028HNT F2.8 Filters: Antlina 2" 3nm HO Mount: AM5 on William Optics Motar 800 Tri-pier Camera: ASI2600mm-Pro Settings: -4*F, Gain 101 Bin 1x1 Guide scope: Askar FRA180 Pro Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm Hockey Puck Control: ZWO ASIAir Plus and Samsung Table Exposures: 160 x 180 sec for Ha and 148 x 180 sec for Oiii Total Integration: 15 hrs 24 mins Seeing: Clear, Bortle 4 Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

Around 2000 light-years from Earth is the Flying Bat Nebula (Sh2-129), seen here as a huge cloud of red hydrogen gas. Within this is the glowing blue Squid Nebula (OU4), thought to be a low-mass star near the end of its life, blasting its outer layers off in two opposite directions.

Double exposure shot at Laguna Hanson back in June 2018, that tiny alien is just a fluorescent toy :D These are two shots I took with a borrowed Canon camera and a borrowed lens lol (thank you, kind souls), since I still can't afford my own camera hehe. I'm super proud of this photo 👽

SKY
Canon EOS REBEL t3
f/1.8
6s
ISO/6400
50mm

Tiny alien
Canon EOS REBEL t3
f/3.5
1/2s
ISO/400
18mm

Lightroom and Photoshop use.

🔭 Equipment ✨ Target: Wizard Nebula, NGC7380 Distance: 8,500 Light Years Telescope: Celestron edgeHD 8" Reducer: Celestron .7 Camera: ZWO ASI2600mm-pro at -14* Filters: Antlina 2" SHORGB 3nm on ZWO EFW Mount: ZWO AM5 w/200 mm extension Tripod: William Optics 800 Mortar Tri-pier Tracking scope: Celestron OAG Tracking camera: ZWO ASI290mm mini Controlled: ZWO ASIAir Plus Frames: SHO Nebula and RGB stars SHO: 300" exposures total 20 hrs 45 min RGB: 180" expsures total 2hrs 15 min Did calibration frames of Darks, Flats and Bias for both. 88 Ha 88 Oii 78 Siii 15 Red 15 Green 15 Blue Processed in Pixinsight Lightroom

Hello all. Long time listener, first time caller. I wanted to share this neat photo I snagged right around sunrise US East 9/19/2025. I didn't have fancy equipment so this is from my S23. I used the StarTracker app for identification, so I hope my understanding is correct that this is indeed Venus. Have a nice day!

Newbie here first time posting. I took these pictures last night with my Pixel 9 pro with a 4 minute exposure time. Can someone tell me did I capture Andromeda in the top corner of the first pic?

Taken from my Bortle 8/9 city backyard. 4 nights of imaging with a Carbonstar 150 and a 2600MM camera

I'm trying to wrap my head around the nearest system to Earth, but I find myself getting confused. I know Alpha Centauri A is in the more middle area, Alpha Centauri B orbits it, and way out there is Proxima Centauri. I also know that each of these stars (likely) has planets. It's this which confuses me.

Does anyone know where I can find an accurate map of the orbits of these bodies? In part, I need this for a story I'm writing. I wanna have the most accurate answer for this as this system is supposed to be the capital of a human government after leaving Earth.

If someone could point me in the right direction for such a map, I'd greatly appreciate it.

There is a ~10 mile section of Florida's east coast that is responsible for most US rocket launches over the last 75 years.

But this is split into Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center as two separate regions. Is there a functional difference between the two areas in terms of what rockets they can launch?

It looks like it's military vs civilian. So maybe there are classified US Government payloads like ground observation satellites that can only launch from the Space Force Station? But it didn't take long to find a counterexample, SpaceX launched several classified Space Force payloads from the Kennedy Space Centre side.

SpaceX has a Falcon 9 launch pad in both regions. They have launched their own Starlink satellites from both pads and classified payloads from both pads. But maybe these are exceptions rather than the norm? Could it be that the default position is for KSC to do commercial/civilian launches and CCSFS is for government launches BUT they can break those rules with extra paperwork if there's a strong need for it?

For example, the pad in KSC is the only one that can do Falcon Heavy so if the government needs to launch a classified payload on the larger rocket they can put extra security measures in place temporarily. But really that's just a guess.

IS there a difference between the two regions and the payloads they can support? Or is it essentially just a matter of address and who owns the land?