The Moon

Busted out the solar telescope, now that fall has finally come to central Florida and the weather’s nice again! We’re still in the midst of a solar maximum, and today’s flares did not disappoint. We kept the ‘scope out all day, and observed a smaller flare seen across from the big ones turn into a…

It doesn’t take much imagination to see a ghost leaving a trail of ectoplasm in this cloud of Hydrogen gas, lit up by the bright star Navi. To keep with a spooky and ethereal theme, I photographed this object in monochrome using only a Hydrogen-alpha filter.

I shot this object in a few different ways. Here’s how it looks in pure “LRGB” light – how it would appear to the eye in its natural wavelengths, if your eyes could detect color on something so dim! And here’s a narrowband take on this same object. Notice that the structure of its core…

Well, it was certainly born of fire. This is planetary nebula Abell 39, one of the largest spheres in the galaxy… it’s 2.6 light-years across! It really is that color blue. You’re seeing ionized Oxygen gas blown off by the dying star in its center. Look closely for the distant galaxies in the background, including…

This is a small part of a larger nebula called the “Baby Nebula” (also known as the Soul Nebula) in the constellation Cassiopeia. If you see a baby in the larger nebula this is part of, this image would be of the baby’s bottom 🙂 There is a ton of star formation going on in…

Central Florida wasn’t on the path of the “ring of fire” annular eclipse, but we did get about 60% coverage during the peak of our partial solar eclipse today! I was live-streaming the view at the peak, but managed to capture a quick image for myself shortly afterwards. Lots of good flares and prominences, and…