The Eclipse and the Comet! On April 8, there was a total eclipse of the sun, if you happened to be about 400 miles west of the Outer Banks. Here in Waves, we had a somewhat less exciting experience, but interesting all the same. We saw about 60-65% coverage of the sun. I think a […]
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Watch Out for the Devil Comet! This is the Devil Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks on the night of March 11. It’s called the Devil Comet because it tends to change its shape and brightness rather abruptly! Some researchers believe this is caused by volcanic eruptions which release internal gases from its core. Currently, the Devil Comet is […]
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It’s Galaxy Time! The beginning of March always puts Earth in a position to view hundreds of galaxies. Of course, the groupings of galaxies start to appear before the beginning of the month. Here are three images I took during February: This is M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. It’s 28 million light-years (MLY) away from us […]
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Must be the Season of the Witch! This is the Witch Head Nebula, IC 2118. It’s a large, faint, reflection nebula located in the constellation Eridanus, near the star Rigel. The red area in the following image shows you where IC 2118 is located: With a visual magnitude of +10, IC 2118 is impossible to […]
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In astrophotography, we combine multiple images to increase the field of view and allow us to look at very large objects or show multiple objects that appear close to each other in the night sky. This mosaic is a composition of eight frames. It shows three famous emission nebulae, the Orion Nebula, M42, (on the […]
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How Many Stars Can You See? This is M45, the Pleiades. With a visual magnitude of +1.5, it’s an easy star cluster to spot. M45 will be visible just above the eastern horizon just after sundown throughout December. Most people can spot five or six stars in the cluster. If the night is clear and […]
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Come to California This is the NGC1499, the California Nebula! It’s a very large emission nebula that has a visual magnitude of +5.0. NGC1499 starts in November just above the NE horizon and can be seen with the naked eye. But don’t expect to have an easy time finding it. Finding the California Nebula can […]
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This is comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura). It was discovered on August 12, by Japanese astronomer Hideo Nishimura. He discovered it as an unexpected deep space object in a series of images he had taken. C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) is believed to orbit the Sun every 430 years and had a visual magnitude of +5.9 when I […]
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There are four deep-space objects worth looking for in September! This is the Western Veil Nebula, NGC 6960. With a visual magnitude of +5.00, you might think it would be easy to see with the naked eye. But in reality, it’s difficult to see unless you’re using an OIII filter on a telescope. The […]
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Two Planetary Nebula A planetary nebula (PN) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. This is M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. It is the first “Planetary Nebula” ever discovered. But Messier […]
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