GERRY LEBING GERRY LEBING On the night of September 2, I was looking at my star maps and noticed a little galaxy I had never looked at before. NGC 7331 is a magnitude +9.3 spiral galaxy in the Pegasus constellation. I took a series of images, and when I processed them, I was pretty happy […] Island Features | Full Article
This is Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula. It’s a bright (magitude +6.0) emission nebula that’s divided by a lane of dark intersteller gas. It’s located about 4,000 lightyears away from us. M8 is believed to be an area of star formation. Under very dark and clear skies, M8 can be observed with the naked eye. […] Island Features | Full Article
GERRY LEBING GERRY LEBING The Perseids meteor shower will peak the night of August 12-13. There are a number of reasons the Perseids are considered the best meteor shower of the year: It’s a high volume meteor shower. The Perseids are known for counts of 100 shooting stars per hour. It’s a bright meteor […] Island Features | Full Article
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. Its diameter is about 87 thousand miles–that’s about 11 times larger than Earth’s! Jupiter is also about five times further from the sun than the Earth. The composition of Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen, 9% helium and it has small amounts of other elements. Its size […] Island Features | Full Article
April yielded some great views of double galazies! The large spiral galaxy in the upper left is Messier 100; the smaller galaxy in the lower right is NGC 4312. Messier 100 was discovered in 1781, but it wasn’t until 1850 that its spiral structure could be seen with the use of a six foot reflector […] Island Features | Full Article
Start April by looking across the sound to the west, right around sundown. If the skies are clear, you will easily spot Venus, the third brightest object in our skies – (only the sun and the moon are brighter!) Venus is named after the Roman god of love and beauty. It’s often called the evening […] Island Features | Full Article
You might remember last month we discussed that M82 and M81 passed very close to each other 300 million years ago. The gravitational interaction is believed to have started M82’s rapid star formation. M81 is 12 million light years away. M81 and M82 as seen from Waves, NC! You can view both objects through binoculars! […] Island Features | Full Article
Full Moon Cancelled for February Something you won’t see in February is a full moon! Both January and March have two full moons this year and that leaves February without one! That’s called a Black Moon. This is Messier 82, the Cigar Galaxy. It’s a +8 magnitude starburst galaxy that’s 12 million light years […] Island Features | Full Article
This is the California Nebula. It’s about 1800 light years away. Right now, it’s just about directly overhead. The California Nebula has a visual magnitude of +5, but it is extremely difficult to spot with the naked eye. I had to enhance the image by increasing the saturation of the color and brightness to make […] Island Features | Full Article
The constellation Orion will rise at 6:40 p.m. on December 1 and will completely cover the Eastern horizon by 7:40 p.m. Most sky watchers can easily pick out the stars that form the body, belt, and sword of this mythological hunter, but may not realize how much this area of the sky has to offer. […] Island Features | Full Article
