Not much has been written about this object – I think its brighter neighbors in the Cygnus molecular cloud, such as the North American Nebula, steal attention from it. But I think it’s one of the more photogenic nebulas in the sky, and you really do see an angry-looking Longhorn pushing through the clouds if you use your imagination! Presented with and without stars, in the Hubble SHO palette. 26 hours total exposure time.
I don’t know why the press has latched onto the name “the green comet” for C/2022 E3 (ZTF) – most comets are green, and it’s too dim to see any color at all if you’re viewing it through binoculars or a telescope. But through 2 hours of total exposure time, the colors do emerge, and…
This was intended to just be an image of the galaxy M77 in Cetus, but quite a few other galactic photobombers showed up! The annotated image below guides you to the brighter galaxies in this image, but click on it to expand it, and you’ll find many other ones as well that are incomprehensibly distant.
That twisted-up galaxy at the top is NGC 3718. We don’t actually know if it’s a spiral or a lenticular galaxy, because the galaxy below it, NGC 3729, appears to have warped it beyond recognition when it passed by it. Also look for the cluster of five more distant galaxies just to the right of…
Lit up by the bright star Rigel in Orion, the “Witch Head Nebula” is a cloud of dust that reflect blue a little bit more. Unlike emission nebulas that emit their own light from ionized gases, this just reflects the light of Orion – although there *is* some ionized Hydrogen in the background, which you’ll…
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…
It’s been a long time since I targeted the Veil Nebula – it’s so bright that it’s hard to screw up, so what was the point? But it’s definitely looking a little better using newer equipment, software, and darker skies – plus my processing skills are a little better. Looking back at my original images…