Telescope: TS APO80

Veil Nebula

Veil Nebula

Posted by | Aug 2, 2018 | , |

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 as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of recorded history. Today, the resulting supernova remnant, also known as the Cygnus Loop, has faded and is now visible only through a small telescope directed...

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Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree

Posted by | Dec 31, 2017 | , , |

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 Tree by fellow astronomers and astro-photographers, who lack no imagination. All these nebulae and star clusters are located in the constellation Monoceros. For reference the Snowflake Cluster in the middle is 2700 light-years away from the Earth – not too much, but due to this region’s...

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Andromeda Galaxy

Andromeda Galaxy

Posted by | Nov 17, 2017 | , |

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 actually moving on a highway towards us at the speed limit of about 110 kilometers per second. Astronomers have estimated that Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way in 4 billion years from now. However, by...

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Rosette Nebula

Rosette Nebula

Posted by | Nov 12, 2017 | , |

This cosmic flowery nebula is called Rosette after the red roses you are able to find in your backyard during spring. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of young stars designated NGC 2244. They formed about 4 million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are drilling a hole in nebula’s center, all of it insulated by cosmic dust and hot gases. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, at about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It is one of the few deep space objects that can be seen with even a small telescope...

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Pleiades

Pleiades

Posted by | Oct 11, 2016 | , |

Pleiades are an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. A faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster, but is now likely an unrelated foreground dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently...

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