Flaming Star Nebula

The Monkey Head Nebula is located about 6400 light-years away, in the constellation Orion. It’s a gorgeous cloud of gas surrounding a cluster of young stars. I processed this data a couple of different ways; one using the “Hubble palette” and another using my own color scheme. The colors represent different kinds of ionized gases:…

I just added a Lunt 40mm solar telescope to the arsenal here… figuring it out was challenging, but eventually I got it working! This ain’t bad for my very first solar image; still lots to learn though.

As with any form of photography, getting a good shot is largely about being in the right place at the right time. When it comes to photographing the planets, sometimes that means getting up at a painful hour. Both Mars and Uranus are nearing “opposition” – the point where they are directly across from Earth…

This edge-on spiral is around 40 million light-years away within the constellation Coma Berenices. Lots of satellite and background galaxies to explore around it! Zoom in, and travel back in time – hundreds of millions of years.

A lot of things have to come together for a good image of the planets. The air needs to be as still as possible, the planet you’re imaging needs to be as directly overhead as possible, and the planet itself should be as close to the Earth as possible. And then, all your equipment has…

I’ve imaged this one before, but I keep coming back to it because I just can’t believe its golden color is real. But even after applying all I’ve learned about color calibration – I can say pretty definitely that these are its true colors. It’s also benefited from advances in image processing software, making the…