Space Jellyfish!

There are a lot of stars in this picture; the gases of the Wizard Nebula (formally SH2-142) are the birthplace of those stars, and more are being created even now. It’s located about 7,200 light-years away, and is extremely dim – it took over 9 hours of exposure time to capture this image. Your ability…

Messier 88, within the constellation Coma Berenices, is part of the nearby Virgo cluster of galaxies. And by “nearby”, I mean 50-60 million light years away! The light we’re seeing from this galaxy originated from the time of the dinosaurs. Telescopes are really time machines. There are many other galaxies surrounding M88, both smaller and…

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.

If you look at the constellation Orion in the winter night’s sky, the center of Orion’s “sword” is not a star at all – it is the brightest nebula in our sky, M42 or the Great Nebula of Orion. Sitting right on top of it is technically another nebula designated M43, and above that is…

This is M27, the “Dumbbell Nebula,” about 1600 light-years away. It’s what’s called a planetary nebula – not because it has anything to do with planets, but because early observers confused them for planets. In reality it’s far more interesting. This is what’s left over when a medium-sized star runs out of Hydrogen to fuse,…

The Heart Nebula is a little too big to fit within the field of view of my telescope, but its inner “heart” is interesting in its own right. This is star cluster Melotte 15, formed from the gases within the Heart Nebula – and some of that gas remains, forming interesting clouds and formations where…