Located 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, M91 is part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies – and if you zoom in and explore this image, you’ll find many other galaxies surrounding it, and also far in the distance beyond it.
Imaging deep sky objects from a suburban driveway forces one to find ways to deal with light pollution. Light pollution is the enemy of astronomers – but in reality, there are ways around it. Some of the most beautiful objects in the cosmos are called emission nebula. They are clouds of gas, often where new…
This object was a real challenge to image. From central Florida, it only rises 13 degrees above the horizon, deep within the light-polluted murk of my Southern sky. Omega Centauri is a Southern hemisphere object, so capturing it from the Northern hemisphere requires effort. It’s worth it though – this is one of the most…
It’s globular cluster season, so here’s another one! M80 is found within the constellation Scorpius, and lies a distant 32,600 light-years away – making it one the small side from our vantage point. It contains several hundred thousand stars, and is one of the denser globular clusters in our galaxy. The faint galaxy in the…
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…
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,…
Now that our new backyard observatory is up and running, and we’re under darker skies than in our previous home, I’m revisiting some galaxies I’ve imaged before to see how things compare. Galaxies are tough… any amount of light pollution or moonlight really limits your ability to capture faint, wispy details. But the less light…