The Eye of Sauron

This nebula goes by the unassuming name of SH2-9. It’s part of a larger complex of clouds known as the Rho Ophiuchi complex, but you don’t often see people focusing on this part of it. It’s a challenge to image from my location, as it’s very low in the sky in a light-polluted direction. There…

Part of our Local Group of galaxies, the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) is about 3 million light years away and the most distant object visible to the naked eye under dark skies.

You’re looking at about 500,000 stars, balled up just outside of our galaxy. They are ancient; about 8 billion years old.

The Cocoon Nebula in Cygnus is a compact cloud of Hydrogen, lit up by the bright star in its center. Dust lanes can also be seen across it, obscuring the ionized Hydrogen gas behind them. This object is best imaged during the heart of Summer, which means really challenging conditions here in Florida. High humidity,…

A wider shot of the Eagle Nebula, with the famous “pillars of creation” in its center.

This is IC342, located about 10 million light-years away. If it were anywhere else in the sky, it would be visible to the naked eye – but it lies behind the disk of our Milky Way galaxy, obscuring the view. This image is the result of 22 hours of total exposure time to try and…