Sensational New "Pro-Am" View of Cas A

In sports, the term “pro-am” refers to a competition between professional and non-professional athletes. In astronomy, there are also “pro-am” events, but these are highly collaborative and never cutthroat.

AstroBin is an image hosting platform and social network for astrophotographers (also often known as “amateur astronomers”, though their skill and expertise should never be questioned!)

Previously, this astro-hive created spectacular images of M51, which we took the liberty of combining with X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in a separate version.

M51
Contributors: Carl Björk, Thomas Bähnck, Sebastian Donoso, Jake Gentillon, Antoine and Dalia Grelin, Stephen Guberski, Richard Hall, Tino Heuberger, Jason Jacks, Paul Kent, Brian Meyers, William Ostling, Nicolas Puig, Tim Schaeffer, Felix Schöfbänker, Mikhail Vasilev; Chandra X-ray Data: NASA/CXC/SAO

Now, they have just released their latest gem: a new ground-based view of Cassiopeia A (Cas A).

According to their website, this Cas A project involves the longest integration time of any of their projects currently, totaling some 525 hours. It is gorgeous on its own, but perhaps even more compelling when combined again with X-ray data from Chandra.

Cassiopeia A
Contributors: Tim Schaeffer, William Ostling, Justin, Adrien Keijzer, Paul Kent, BTB Astroteam Brentenriegel, Steve Gill, Tino Heuberger, Nicolas Puig, Julian Shapiro, Felix Schöfbänker, Mikhail Vasilev, David Wood; Chandra X-ray Data: NASA/CXC/SAO

Congratulations to those who worked so hard on this project. We can’t wait to see what comes out next.

- Megan Watzke