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![Going Deep with the Horsehead and Flame](https://boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/HorseheadFlame-768x511.png)
Going Deep with the Horsehead and Flame
The Horsehead and Flame nebulas, although popular, are really difficult to image together. The clouds of Hydrogen look best using narrowband filters, but the blue reflection nebula below the Horsehead only appears in wideband, color filters. Further complicating matters is the bright star Alnitak, one of the stars that makes up Orion’s belt. In narrowband,…
![Medusa Nebula](https://boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Medusa_Proc-768x755.png)
The Medusa Nebula
This is planetary nebula PK205+14.1, but its common name “The Medusa Nebula” rolls off the tongue a little better. About 1500 light-years away within the constellation Gemini, you’re seeing the gas blown off by a small star that ran out of fuel, and blew up into a red giant – later to end its life…
![Early-morning planetary imaging](https://boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sat_055154_AS_P50_lapl4_ap141_Drizzle15-768x723.png)
Early-morning planetary imaging
We recently obtained a new telescope for observing the planets, and we had our first good conditions for planetary imaging this morning! This is the best image of Jupiter I’ve ever gotten, and I’m hopeful that it will be even better once it gets closer to Earth in a couple of Months. Saturn’s not looking…
![The Nebula with No Name](https://boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/NGC1491-Natural-768x636.png)
The Nebula with No Name
This dim nebula in the constellation Perseus has no name, apart from its catalog numbers NGC 1491 and LBN 704. I think it deserves one. It reminds me of the Bubble nebula – if you look closely, you’ll see a “bubble” at center being created from the stellar wind of the hot star that is…
![Horsehead and Flame Nebulas](https://boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/HorseFlameColor-768x574.png)
The Horsehead and the Flame
I trained my telescope at this pair of nebulas in Orion for a total of 10 hours. On the right is the iconic Horsehead nebula – actually a dark cloud of gas in front of the illuminated nebula behind it. To the left is the Flame Nebula. In between, in the upper-left, is the bright…
![Revisiting the Northern Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)](https://boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/M101-768x1024.png)
Revisiting the Northern Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)
Somehow I’ve neglected to go back to one of the showcase galaxies of the spring sky with newer equipment and software: M101, the “Pinwheel Galaxy.” Located about 21 million light-years away within Ursa Major, this relatively close galaxy shows lots of active star-forming regions revealed by red HII gas. Those red spots are nebulae in…