Hercules Cluster of Galaxies
The Hercules Cluster (Abell 2151) is a cluster of about 200 galaxies some 500 million light-years distant in the constellation Hercules. One of the coolest aspects of this cluster is […]
The Hercules Cluster (Abell 2151) is a cluster of about 200 galaxies some 500 million light-years distant in the constellation Hercules. One of the coolest aspects of this cluster is […]
Here’s a familiar shape in an unfamiliar location! This emission nebula is famous partly because it resembles Earth’s continent of North America. This emission nebula measures about 90 light-years from […]
I had a great time admiring the Solar Eclipse this time. Not only was I prepared much better than 2017, I had excellent company with Somesh, Sanjay, Nitin & Ansh […]
I swapped my telescope AG Optical’s 10″ IDK (a type of reflector), which had 75 times magnification capability, with Stellarvue SV130, which is a refractor with 28 times magnification for […]
More commonly known as Hockey Stick Galaxy, NGC 4656 is a distorted edge-on spiral galaxy. Its distinctive shape is due to a recent gravitational interaction with the galaxy NGC 4631. […]
Seagull nebula (known as IC 2177) is a rather large nebula and has a shape resembling Seagull. The complex of gas and dust that forms the head of the seagull […]
Clusters of stars can be near or far, young or old, diffuse or compact. This image shows two quite contrasting open star clusters in the same field. M35, upper-center, is […]
Spiral galaxy pair NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 (in center) share this area with lonely elliptical galaxy NGC 4564 (on left). All are members of the large Virgo Galaxy Cluster. […]
From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 6946 face-on. The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located 22 million light-years away, behind a veil of foreground […]
The Monkey Head nebula – ngc2174 is an emission nebula (click here for an explanation on emission nebulae) located in the Orion Constellation. It was given this name because of […]
The Veil Nebula lies around 2,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), making it a relatively close neighbor in astronomical terms. The Veil Nebula is the […]
The Whale Galaxy (NGC4631) is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. This galaxy’s slightly distorted wedge shape, gives it the appearance of a whale, hence its nickname. […]
Messier 109 is a barred spiral galaxy exhibiting a weak inner ring structure around an obviously well-structured central bar approximately 83.5 ± 24 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa […]
Our galaxy is part of a group of galaxies that includes Andromeda, Pinwheel and about 80 other galaxies. This group is called ‘Local Group of Galaxies’. Neighboring to our group […]
M24, also known as the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, is a large naked eye expanse of stars, clusters, nebulosity and other objects located in Sagittarius, and is pointing close to […]
NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, […]
Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four […]
Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies gather in one field of view. They are NGC 3628 (right-bottom), M66 (top-right), and M65 (top-left). All three are large spiral […]
NGC 2903 is a field barred spiral galaxy about 20 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Just a little smaller than our own Milky Way, NGC 2903 is about […]
NGC 7538, near the more famous Bubble Nebula, is located in the constellation Cepheus. It is located about 9,100 light-years from Earth. It is home to the biggest yet discovered […]
Cocoon Nebula (IC5146) is a beautiful nebula that is combination of an emission (pink) and reflection (blue) nebula. It has an apparent size of 12 arc minutes and is located […]
This is my first mosaic picture. My scope takes images at 75 times magnification. At that magnification, this object would have covered the entire frame, so I took 4 sets […]
With my new telescope, I have taken a wider view of the Cone Nebula. This is done with narrowband data. this interstellar formation is dubbed the Cone Nebula (named for […]
There are five galaxies in this image. They are all about 90-130 million light years away!!! Yes – light that you see now left these galaxies way before Dinosaurs were […]
Stars such as our Sun do not contain enough mass to finish their lives in the glorious explosions known as supernovae. However, they are still able to salute their imminent […]
The prominent ridge of emission featured in image is designated IC 5067. It is part of a larger nebula with a distinctive shape, popularly called The Pelican Nebula, whose ridge […]
NGC 4244, nicknamed the Silver Needle Galaxy is my next image. This galaxy spans some 65,000 light-years and lies around 13.5 million light-years away. It appears as a wafer-thin streak […]
Dozens of planetary nebulae are visible in a small telescope, but none present such a distinctive and accessible appearance in a small telescope as the Ring Nebula (M57) in the […]
Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light would have suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today […]
Along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the Swan, this image is of SH2-101, popularly called the Tulip Nebula. About 8,000 light-years distant […]
I had amazing luck with weather and great hosts (found on AirBnb) at Madisonville, Eastern Tennessee. But, not everything can go perfect. I had some last minute issues with my […]
The name Trifid refers to its three-lobed appearance. Messier 20 consists of several different objects: an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, a dark nebula and an open star cluster. The […]
Messier 5 (M5) is a globular star cluster, 100,000 stars or more, bound by gravity and packed into a region around 165 light-years in diameter. It lies some 25,000 light-years […]
Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding, leaving a long tail of their erstwhile spiral arms. Spanning about 500 thousand light-years, the […]
Barred spiral galaxy M95 is about 75,000 light-years across, somewhat smaller in size to our own Milky Way and one of the larger galaxies of the Leo galaxy group. In […]
Probably the best example of a spiral Galaxy, M101 is known as the Pinwheel Galaxy for obvious reasons – it’s many spiral arms give a clear impression of a pinwheel. […]
After a few months of issues with my observatory, everything is working fine now and I am back into imaging. You will see a flurry of images during next week. […]
What’s lighting up the Cigar Galaxy? M82, as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn’t fully explain […]
This helmet-shaped nebula with apparent wings is popularly called Thor’s Helmet. Thor’s Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the helmet is more like an interstellar bubble, lit up […]
Few astro-images excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula. Also known as M42, this is the brightest nebula seen from the northern skies. The nebula is a star factory as […]
Interstellar dust clouds and bright nebulae abound in the fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78, is in the center of this image, covering an area north of […]
Fishhead Nebula (IC 1795) is a bright emission nebula of about 70 light-years across with glowing gas and dark lanes of obscuring dust, located just over 6,000 light-years away from […]
I had taken this image in 2017, but, came back to this image again in 2019. This time, I took 2 panels and joined them together to cover a larger […]
With my lower magnification Stellarvue SV130 telescope, I imaged this galaxy again in 2023. Here is this image. Update 2022 NGC 253 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation […]
Lagoon Nebula is a rather large nebula about 4,100 light-years distant, in the direction of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Hot stars in the open star cluster (bright […]
From Garuda Nebula (vdB152) to Lord Shiva’s third eye! Helix Nebula is one of the most beautiful Planetary Nebulae. Planetary Nebula have nothing to do with planets. They are called […]
This star forming region, known as Swan Nebula (concentrate only on the brighter part of the nebula to see a checkmark and extend leftward to see a rough swan shape), […]
vdB 152 is a dark cloud of gas that is thick enough to obscure all the stars behind it and only some part of the nebula is shining in blue […]
Dumbbell Nebula is a planetary nebula i.e. remains of a dying star. The red color is hydrogen gas clouds, and the greenish blue color consists of nitrogen and oxygen as […]
Messier 13 (M13), also designated NGC 6205 and sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars in […]
This is an image of M16- The Queen Nebula. It’s called Queen Nebula because you can, with some imagination, see a lady holding up her hands and with a flowing […]
Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) in Triangulum constellation is our neighbor. It is the second nearest galaxy to our Milky way (excluding our Milky Way’s satellites). It’s smaller than our galaxy – […]
Here is the best nebula ever – The Orion Nebula (M42) – the object in the middle. It is the brightest nebula (a cloud of gas) as seen from earth […]
Bubble Nebula, a rare type of nebula, is an emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. Although it looks delicate, the 7 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at […]
My most favorite deep sky object is Horsehead Nebula in Orion Constellation. It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula in the background. The horsehead feature […]
I have revisited this galaxy in 2020 and took a image with long duration of 19 hours. (43 images of 20 minutes each for Luminance & 9 images each of […]
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) – Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest large Galaxy to Milky Way. It consists of 1 trillion stars. The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million […]
Those who follow my pictures closely will notice that I have imaged this galaxy many times. It’s because I love this galaxy and try to image it every year to […]