Horsehead Nebula

(Image credit: ddmitr, iStockPhoto.com) Every picture on this site was taken from a suburban driveway in a “red zone” on the light pollution map, literally underneath a streetlight. Every year more subdivisions and apartment buildings spring up in my city, and light pollution from the metro Orlando area just keeps getting worse. There are four…

This is IC443, commonly known as the “Jellyfish Nebula” for obvious reasons! IC443 is a supernova remnant about 5,000 light-years away. This is a false-color, narrowband image consisting of a total of 20 hours of exposure time.

Imaging deep sky objects from a suburban driveway forces one to find ways to deal with light pollution. Light pollution is the enemy of astronomers – but in reality, there are ways around it. Some of the most beautiful objects in the cosmos are called emission nebula. They are clouds of gas, often where new…

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…

Also in Hercules, M92 is often passed over for its larger and more dazzling neighbor, M13. But M92 is pretty in its own way! It’s also one of the oldest globular clusters in our galaxy (over 11 billion years old) and has some very interesting background galaxies around it too.

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,…