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Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way is the galaxy  that contains our Solar System. The descriptive "milky" is derived from the appearance from Earth of the galaxy – a band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας...

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| Aug 5, 2018 | 0 Comments

Triangulum Galaxy

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier33 or NGC598. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. It is one of the most distant permanent objects...

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| Aug 4, 2018 | 0 Comments

The Witch Head Nebula

IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape) is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in  Orion. It lies in the Eridanus constellation, about 900 light years from Earth. The nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light...

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| Aug 2, 2018 | 0 Comments

Veil Nebula

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103), a large but relatively faint supernova remnant. The source supernova exploded circa 3,000 BC to 6,000 BC. At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright...

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| Aug 2, 2018 | 0 Comments

Leo Triplet

The Leo Triplet, or the M66 Group, is a group of interacting spiral galaxies located in the northern constellation Leo. The group consists of the galaxies Messier 65, Messier 66 and NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy. The Leo Triplet lies at an approximate distance of 35 million light years from Earth. The three large spiral galaxies...

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| Jul 30, 2018 | 0 Comments

Christmas Tree

Christmas tree is actually a nickname for NGC 2264 that officially identifies two astronomical objects: The Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster. Unofficially other objects within this designation are: The Snowflake Cluster and the Fox Fur Nebula. No doubt something including a form of cone, Christmas and snowflakes is called a Christmas...

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| Dec 31, 2017 | 0 Comments

Pacman Nebula

NGC 281, IC 11 or Sh2-184 is a bright emission nebula and part of an H II region in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia and is part of the Milky Way's Perseus Spiral Arm. This 30 arcmin sized nebulosity is also associated with open cluster IC 1590, several Bok globules and the multiple star. It collectively forms Sh2-184, spanning over a...

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| Dec 25, 2017 | 0 Comments

Heart and Soul Nebulae

Cassiopeia is the constellation where the "heart and soul" of our galaxy can be found. Nebulae IC 1802 and IC 1848 are relatively nicknamed Heart and Soul after their heart and embryo-like shapes. Spanned over 300 light-years, it takes about 6000 years for photons from these bright emission nebulae to reach the Earth. Their bright red light is...

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| Nov 24, 2017 | 0 Comments

M31, Andromeda Galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy , also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years) from Earth, and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. Its name stems from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to...

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| Nov 19, 2017 | 0 Comments

Andromeda Galaxy

One of, if not the most famous deep sky objects is Messier 31 - as known as the Andromeda galaxy. At the proximity of only 2.5 million light-years to the Earth it get the well-deserved title of the closest neighbor of our galaxy - the Milky Way. Located in the constellation bearing its own name - Andromeda, the spiral galaxy like ours is...

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| Nov 17, 2017 | 0 Comments

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