The Triangulum Galaxy (M33, NGC598) the third largest member of the local group, with its larger sisters the Andromeda Galaxy and our Milky Way. It consists of 40 billion stars, really small compared to the 400 billion of the Milky Way and the 1 trillion of the Andromeda Galaxy. This image is an LRGB composite […]
The constellation of Orion is a treasure-trove of deep-sky nebulosity, not only the famous emission nebulae, but also interstellar dust clouds. This is one of them, M78 or NGC2068, an impressive blue reflection nebula about 1500 light-years away and 5 light-years across in the center of the image. The blue nebulosity in the upper part […]
The Helix Nebula again, this time with data from the Astro-Physics Riccardi-Honders-System at Deep Sky West. The pixel scale is around 1 arcsec/pixel, just as for the previous version from the Astro-Physics Starfire Refractor, but the field of view is smaller. At the same time the system is much faster, total integration time was just […]
This is the Helix Nebula, NGC7293, a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. It is about 700 light-years away, spanning about 2.5 light-years. The image uses RGB data, with additional Ha data to enhance the luminance channel, taken with the Astro-Physics 175 Starfire Refractor from the Deep Sky West Observatory. Exposure: H […]
Sharpless2-188, a difficult target already for narrowband imaging. This version, however, is RGB with Ha mixed into the luminance channel. This object is an unconventional planetary nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia. The expanding gas from the planetary nebula is colliding with ambient gas in the interstellar medium. The nebula is brighter to the southeast […]