This is the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023. It was discovered in 1794 by William Herschel. The Iris Nebula is a reflection nebula located about halfway between Polaris and Deneb. It has a visual magnitude of +7.2 and is 1,400 light years away from us. NGC 7023 is about 6 light years in diameter. It reflects […]
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Wikipedia defines a globular cluster as “a spherical collection of stars that orbit a galactic core, as a satellite.” Globular clusters are fairly common, and there about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way. This is Messier 3, a +6.19 magnitude globular cluster that is 33 thousand light years away. M3 was discovered by Charles […]
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The night skies of March were literally filled with great opportunities to view some of my favorite Deep Space Objects (DSO) – galaxies. With very few exceptions, most galaxies are rather far away from us. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbor. It’s only 2.5 million light years away from us. […]
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The first thing you might notice about the Rosette Nebula / star cluster is it has a lot of National Galactic Catalog (NGC) numbers associated with it. That’s due to different parts of this object being “discovered” by five different astronomers. The star cluster (visual magnitude +5) was discovered around 1690 by John Flamsteed, […]
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Clear Winter Nights in February is a Very Sirius Business! The brightest star in the night skies is Sirius. With a visual magnitude of -1.4, Sirius is often mistaken for Venus. Coming into February, it’s real easy to distinguish the two. Sirius is the brightest object in the SE skies in the evening, while Venus […]
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The large, bright nebula in the lower two-thirds of this image is M42, the Orion Nebula. It’s big, about 24 light years across, and bright! With a magnitude of +4, you can spot M42 with your naked eye! M42 is only 1,400 lights years away from us. It’s an area of intense star formation – […]
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November offered great views of nebulae! This is the Flame (lower left quadrant) and the Horse Head Nebulae (upper right quadrant) and a couple of small reflection nebulae! The main star in this shot is Alnitak. It’s the easternmost star in Orion’s belt. With a visual magnitude of +1.7, it’s easy to see with the […]
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What to look for in November 2018. If you are lucky, you might get to see Jupiter and Mercury closely following the setting sun shortly after sundown on November 1. Saturn and Mars will still be visible in the evening skies for all of November. Pluto is between Mars and Saturn, but obviously hidden from […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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