The Moon

Well, it was certainly born of fire. This is planetary nebula Abell 39, one of the largest spheres in the galaxy… it’s 2.6 light-years across! It really is that color blue. You’re seeing ionized Oxygen gas blown off by the dying star in its center. Look closely for the distant galaxies in the background, including…

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…

There’s a comet in the sky! They don’t appear this bright very often, so don’t miss what could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a comet with your own eyes. It’s tough to spot here in suburbia with your eyes, but it’s easy to see with binoculars. Its official name is C/2020 F3 NEOWISE. Just…

The “California Nebula” (NGC1499) does actually kinda look like California, if you look at the whole thing. But the whole thing is too big in the sky to fit within the field of view of my telescope. So, here’s an interesting portion of it near one of its ends at least. From this angle, it…

That massive sunspot group rivals the size of the one that triggered the Carrington Event in 1859. So far it has kicked off some large coronal mass ejections heading our way, but fortunately nothing on that scale. Let’s hope we just get some pretty auroras from this, and nothing more damaging!

Had a couple of clear nights recently, and trained the ‘scope at the Rosette Nebula again. By combining this year’s data with last year’s, I created an image with a total 27 hours of exposure time! The Rosette Nebula is about 5,000 light-years away within the constellation Monoceros, and is the birthplace of the cluster…