We just released a HUGE mosaic of the so-called Running Chicken #Nebula: 1.5 billion pixels full of young stars and glowing hydrogen gas. The mosaic comprises data acquired with the VLT Survey #Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile
The official NASA/ESA version of the Ring Nebula, as seen by #JWST.
The Ring is a planetary nebula. Planetary nebulas got their name because they look like fuzzy planets through small telescopes. They were believed to be simple, round objects with a single dying Sun-like star at their centers. However, modern observations like this show a variety of intricate and complex structures.
How does a spherical star create a non-spherical nebula?
NGC 6302, the Butterfly Nebula, is a planetary nebula. Planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets. Instead, they are created at the end of the lifetime of a Sun-like star, as it puffs off its outer layers.
The pinched waist, hourglass-shaped outflows, and symmetrical patterns of the Butterfly Nebula were likely created by interactions between a dying star and its binary star companion in the heart of the nebula.
A partial view of the Perseus molecular cloud, a huge cloud of gas and dust (covering in total an area of 2 by 6 degrees in the sky). Many reflection nebulae are visible in the field of view, and among them the spectacular nebula NGC1333 (center-top of the image), a very active star formation area. This image was captured with a color camera (without filters) and a 400mm F/D5.6 refractor (21h35 cumulated exposure time).
Does anyone else like garlic? I spent about 32 hours collecting data on the Garlic Nebula. Well, I guess my camera spent the time, not me. This is a very faint nebula and could probably use 80 hours.
Here's a lovely infrared view of the IC2631 #nebula, also known as the Chamaeleon Cloud, taken with ESO's VISTA #telescope in #Chile. At infrared wavelengths we can peer through cosmic dust and see details hidden in images taken in visible light.
Couldn’t resist the temptation to reprocess my Trifid nebula (Messier catalogue number 20). Taken from the bottom of the profound light pollution sea of Mexico City last June.
A widefield view of the Pleiades cluster and reflection nebula (M45) at the North-West end of the constellation Taurus. The surrounding interstellar dust in is illuminated by the blue giant stars of the cluster, giving this nice fuzzy blue cloud look.
While most images of the Pleiades focus on the cluster itself, I wanted to take a wider field image to show the extent of the interstellar dust in this area, including this long arching structure to the left of the cluster in the image.
I drove to my observation site under thick clouds both Friday and Sunday night in the hope that it would clear up like the uncertain and rapidly changing forecasts indicated. Both trips paid off and I was able to watch the Perseids meteor showers while my photo rig was capturing this image of the NGC 7822 nebula.
After over a month of cloudy nights, the sky finally opened up last Sunday night. I took this opportunity to get out and try a new filter I ordered in March and received early July - Astrophotography is definitely exercising my patience.
These are the North America and Pelican nebulae (NGC 7000 & IC 5070) in the Cygnus constellation. The image uses the HOO palette where the Hydrogen emission line (Ha) is mapped to the red channel of the image and the Oxygen emission line (Oiii) is mapped to the green and blue channels.
The dark nebula LDN 935 is a gigantic interstellar dust cloud that separates the two emission nebulae by blocking the light they emit, giving this dark appearance.
The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63) is a planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae.650 light years away.
61mm William Optics Refractor
ZWO183MC camera
3 hrs of 7 minute exposures with a ZWO duo band filter
Very likely my last image of 2023, this is the Jellyfish Nebula (IC443), the remnant of a supernova in the constellation Gemini. The two large orange stars are Mu and Eta Geminorum, two red giants at the feet of the rightmost of the two "stick figures" that form the constellation Gemini.
In this field a view in the constellation Cepheus, 4 types of nebulae are visible. A dark nebula (LDN1217) in the middle, with the reflection nebula VDB152 at the top. A small planetary nebula (DeHt-5) in the bottom-right glowing in blue/red. Red filaments across the field are from a supernova remnant (SNR 110.3+11.3).
Composite image captured in October 2023 using a color camera and a small refractor (8h05 without filters + 8h20 in narrowband). #astrodon#astrophotography#astronomy#nebula
I'm satisfied of the images I've been able to capture in 2023 despite multiple extended periods of cloud cover. This is a montage of most of those images, in no particular order.
The Barnard 22 dark nebula, a small part of the large Taurus molecular cloud. In the middle of this image is the spectacular IC2087 reflection nebula. The asteroid 389 Industria was visible during the photography sessions, and was processed like a comet and added to the picture. Photography taken with a 400mm F/D 5.6 refractor and a color camera (no filters), with 23h cumulated exposure time.
With a surprising run of clear nights over the last couple of weeks, I've been able to gather a ton of data on a bunch of different targets, but I am still looking for more on most of them. I was able to finish this photo of the Jellyfish nebula, though. This is one I've wanted to do for a while but kept getting distracted with other things.
Yesteryear did not take a picture of this big celestial rose. Yesterday I decided to give it a shot with my Rokinon 135 mm lens to capture it wide field. Though I used a OSC camera, I could through process create a Hubble-ish pallette. The central cluster of huge and very hot stars is catalogued as NGC2244. #Astrodon#astrophotography#astronomy#nebula#space
A bit of random browsing around the night sky stumbled across Sharpless Sh2-140 in Cepheus. 10.5hr data shot with an 80ED and IDAS NBZ filter, processed and Ha & OIII channels extracted in APP, tweaked and combined in PixInsight and Affinity.
This turned out to be the last picture with my 130 mm Newtonian telescope. Unfortunately, high winds knocked it out despite my ZWO Mount had more than 11 pounds of counterweights to hold it in place. Anyway, the fact that I was able to capture 3 galaxies that are about 35 M-ly away makes me love my hobby no matter what.