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 […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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This is NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy. With a visual magnitude of +7, it’s a good target for binoculars and telescopes. It will start appearing November near the SE horizon right after sunset. It’s about 12 million light years away. NGC 252 is a starburst galaxy. Starburst galaxies are known for their intense star formation. […]
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This is the Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31. It’s a little over 2.5 million light years away from us and contains over 1 trillion stars. With a magnitude of +3.36 it should be visible to the naked eye, but I have only managed to see it with binoculars or a scope. There are two very bright […]
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Saturn is the 6th furthest planet from the sun. It’s about 10 times further from the sun then we are. It takes over 29 years to orbit the sun. Saturn has 62 known moons. Saturn is composed of mostly hydrogen and helium and is about 9 times the size of Earth. What to Look for […]
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There will be a total eclipse of the sun on August 21. It will be visible in a 70 mile-wide band that stretches from Oregon to South Carolina. Here on Hatteras Island, we will have a partial eclipse. The moon will cover 89% of the sun. The moon will start to block the sun […]
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June turned out to be a very poor month for astrophotography. High winds and low visibility made things very challenging. My primary targets for the month were Jupiter and Saturn, but you can’t always get what you want! M57 was discovered in 1779 by Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix. Charles Messier discovered it a few days […]
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May was a difficult month to stargaze, with several high-wind thunderstorms and lots of rainy nights. I was able, however, to get a few shots on still, clear evenings. This is Messier 88, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices. Coma Berenices means the hair of Berenice. Berenice was an Egyptian queen who had […]
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The evening skies of May begin with Arcturus just above the eastern horizon! With a visual magnitude of 0, Arcturus is the brightest star is the northern hemisphere and the 4th brightest star in the night skies! South of Arcturus, you will see two bright “objects.” Jupiter is the brighter of the two (magnitude -2.4) […]
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