Pelican Nebula is a bright emission nebula, and it is part of Cygnus’s larger nebula region. This is also an active star-forming region. The cosmic clouds brightly reflecting lights are emanating from ionizing gas due to surrounding new-born stars. “The star-formation region associated with the North-America (NGC 7000) and Pelican (IC 5070) Nebulae in Cygnus […]
Featured Photo (July 18th): We took this photo from Pinnacles National Park; our first chance at seeing this comet in truly dark skies. Initially, we went to the east side of Pinnacles, but there were hills blocking the view, so it wasn’t very conducive to photography. After scouting for some time, we found a backroad […]
Bubble Nebula is a very faint (not visual) object in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The bubble is thought to have been formed by ionized gas emissions from a massive O type young star BD+60◦2522. According to this March 2020 paper (Link), the shell is formed by this fast-rotating O type star. This rotation and stellar […]
With its asymmetric appearance, the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4631 resembles a whale swimming through space. NGC 4656, the hockey-stick or tadpole galaxy, lies nearby. In the distant past, the orbiting duet made a close pass. In the process, the Whale galaxy distorted its counterpart, drawing from it a long tidal stream visible in the […]
In this image, we see a spectacular galactic collision as it happens. The galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 have produced spectacular streamers arcing from the cores. These long tidal streams consist of dust and gas and bear a striking resemblance to an insect’s two antennae. To us, they resemble two sprouting mung beans! Due […]
The Elephant Trunk Nebula (VDB 142) is a region with ionized gas and dust in the larger star-forming complex of IC 1396. The trunk shape is formed by the rims of the clouds being illuminated by hot young stars. The snout is formed by newly born stars blowing the dust cloud away, forming a cavity […]
This bright galaxy pair is near the Big Dipper’s tail and is an easy target with a telescope at a dark sky site. The face-on Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a) is devouring its smaller companion M51b in a massive galactic collision. The resulting gravitation interaction has spurred star formation in the whirlpool galaxy (pink regions seen in […]
Location: 17 miles north of Mitchell, OR. 44 44 09N 120 0 23W We were at a private ranch (converted into a temporary viewing site with RVs/Tents). There were reports of heavy traffic over the weekend, so we decided to drive overnight on Friday. We Reached the site on Saturday by noon. We set up […]
About Pickering’s Triangular Wisp Popular Name Pickering’s Triangular Wisp Catalogue Names Part of Veil Nebular, Part of NGC6992 and NGC6990 Constellation Cygnus Distance (Light Years) 1450 LY Photographic Information Exposure 7,5 Hours, 4 Hrs Ha, 3.5 Hrs OII Equipment QSI 630 SWG, Paramount MyT, Orion SSAG guider Processing Pixinsight Imaging Location Santa Clara, CA So, […]
