The Needle Galaxy

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…

There are two different clusters of galaxies in this image – the large galaxy you see is NGC 7331, part of the “Deer Lick Galaxy Group.” The smaller galaxies you see surrounding it (sometimes called “The Fleas”) are actually about ten times further away than NGC 7331. In the corner, you’ll see “Stephan’s Quintet,” a…

This notoriously dim supernova remnant in Cassiopeia is formally known as CTB1. It took 46 hours of exposure time – most of that narrowband through Hydrogen and Oxygen filters – to pull out this detail. I’m pretty proud of this one; it holds its own amongst the better captures of this object. As usual, I…

Spent a couple of nights imaging these distant galaxies; the spiral in the upper-left is NGC2336, and the other is IC467. Galaxies this faint and distant generally don’t have catchy names! NGC2336 is 100 million light-years away. Think about that – you’re looking 100 million years in the past. The light we captured started its…

Had a couple of clear nights recently, and trained the ‘scope at the Rosette Nebula again. By combining this year’s data with last year’s, I created an image with a total 27 hours of exposure time! The Rosette Nebula is about 5,000 light-years away within the constellation Monoceros, and is the birthplace of the cluster…

This one’s also known as the “Silver Sliver” Galaxy, or more formally NGC 891. It’s about 30 million light-years away, well beyond our own local group. It’s thought to be quite similar to our own Milky Way! What I really geek out on, though, is the wider views here – there are so many other…