The Moon

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…

This morning, my cat woke me up at 3 AM, and I noticed it was clear outside. But, the sun would start rising in just a couple of hours, so doing some super-long-exposure shot of a faint nebula wasn’t in the cards. However, globular clusters don’t take long to image, as they are relatively bright…

The main galaxies in this image go by the unassuming names of NGC5033 and NGC5005 (5033 is the larger spiral galaxy.) They’re within a constellation named Canes Venatici, or “the hunting dogs.” Look closely, and you’ll spot a few other galaxies – some large but more distant, and some that are just really small and…

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…

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…

This is planetary nebula PK205+14.1, but its common name “The Medusa Nebula” rolls off the tongue a little better. About 1500 light-years away within the constellation Gemini, you’re seeing the gas blown off by a small star that ran out of fuel, and blew up into a red giant – later to end its life…