Witch’s Broom Nebula – Supernova Remnant
On this Halloween Day, see Witch’s Broom Nebula! Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light would have suddenly have appeared in the night […]
NGC7789 – Open Cluster
NGC 7789 is an open cluster in Cassiopeia. An open cluster is a group of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same nebula and have roughly the […]
Pelican Nebula
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 […]
Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
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 […]
Little Dumbbell Nebula – M76
M76 is one of the fainter objects on the Messier list and is also known by the popular name of the “Little Dumbbell Nebula”. Like its brighter namesake M27 (the […]
Sh2-132 – The Cobra Nebula
Sharpless 132 (sh2-132) is a faint emission nebula at the Cepheus/Lacerta border, it measures 42 x 30 arcminutes. It lies about a degree southeast of ε Cep. It can be […]
M105 Group of Galaxies
Normally, I take images of galaxies with nice spiral arms. Sometimes I shoot edge on galaxies, which look flat from our angle. Then there is another group of galaxies, which […]
IC342 – A Galaxy Behind Spiral Arms of Milky Way
A rather UGLY looking galaxy! Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is a mere 10 million light-years distant in the constellation Camelopardalis. A […]
Spiral Galaxy in Leo – M96
Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this picture of the beautiful island universe M96. Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the […]
The Owl Nebula – M97
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. […]
Thor’s Helmet – NGC 2359
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 […]
Edge-On Galaxy M102
Although similar in mass to our Milky Way Galaxy, light takes about 60,000 years to cross M102, about 30 percent less than light takes to cross our own Galaxy. Why […]
Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380)
Located only 8,000 light years away, the Wizard nebula surrounds developing open star cluster NGC 7380. Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears […]
NGC 2403 – A Spiral Galaxy in Camelopardalis
Some 10 million light-years distant and about 50,000 light-years across, the spiral galaxy also seems to have more than its fair share of giant star forming HII regions, marked by […]
M74 – Galaxy in Pisces
About 1/3rd smaller than our Milky Way galaxy, an island universe of about 100 billion stars, 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces, M74 presents a gorgeous face-on view. […]
M65-M66 Galaxies in Leo
Nearby and bright, spiral galaxies M65 (top) and M66 stand out in this cosmic snapshot. The pair are just 35 million light-years distant and around 100,000 light-years across, about the […]
Crab Nebula M1
Presenting Crab Nebula, a ‘Supernova Remnant’ – This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The nebula is result of a supernova seen and recorded all over […]
NGC 772 – A peculiar galaxy
Peculiarly shaped spiral galaxy NGC 772 is found within constellation Aries, some 130 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy. This island universe is peculiar […]
Deer Lick Galaxy Group (NGC7731)
The large galaxy in this picture is a spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. The galaxy is similar in size and structure to the galaxy […]
IC 1396 – Emission Nebula in Cepheus
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 […]
Horsehead & Flame Nebulae
I have imaged this region before, but, no amateur astrophotographer let’s a winter go by without taking another shot at this very colorful & beautiful region of the sky. The […]
Milky Way
After a long time, I visited Cherry Spring State Park, a truly dark sky in north central Pennsylvania. My main purpose was to observe deep sky objects using my telescope, […]
Silver Coin Galaxy (NGC 253)
NGC 253 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. Also known as the Sculptor Galaxy, it is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a […]
Reflection Nebula in Orion – M78
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 […]
Irregular Dwarf Galaxy IC1613
Usually most galaxies pictures that I post have spiral arm structure, dust lanes, definite shape and usually 100s of billions of stars. But, this image is of a irregular dwarf […]
Globular Cluster M107
Our galaxy has ~150 Globular Clusters. These are group of stars that have about 100,000 to 500,000 stars and are bound to each other due to a central Black Hole […]
Reflection Nebula in Scorpio – IC4605
This nebula surrounds star 22 Scorpii and is part of the colorful Rho Ophiuchi Complex. At magnitude 4.8 the star can be seen near Antares under a dark sky. However, […]
NGC 925 – A Spiral Galaxy in Triangulum
This is a tough galaxy to shoot. There is not a lot of light coming from this dim galaxy and therefore, it does not look as pretty. NGC 925 is […]
NGC 891 – Edge-On Galaxy
NGC 891 is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. NGC 891 looks as the Milky Way would look like when viewed edge-on (some […]
Cone Nebula
The Cone Nebula is part of an emission nebula region in the constellation of Monoceros. The diffuse Cone Nebula, so named because of its apparent shape, comes from a dark […]
Lagoon Nebula (M8)
Lagoon Nebula is a rather large nebula (especially for my set up) about 4,100 light-years distant, in the direction of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Hot stars in […]
Skull Nebula (NGC 246)
Appropriately nicknamed “the Skull Nebula”, planetary nebula NGC 246 really does surround a dying star some 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Cetus. Expelled over a period of thousands of […]
Merope Nebula (M45)
Reflection nebulae reflect light from a nearby star. Many small carbon grains in the nebula reflect the light. The blue color typical of reflection nebula is caused by blue light […]
Comet Lovejoy 2014
This is an image of Comet Lovejoy (designated C/2014 Q2). C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is a long-period comet discovered on 17 August 2014 by Terry Lovejoy (an amateur astronomer like me) […]
Fish Head Nebula – IC 1795
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 […]
Orion & Running Man Nebula
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 […]
Fetus Nebula (NGC 7008)
Compact and round, NGC 7008 is recognized as a planetary nebula about 2,800 light-years distant in the nebula rich constellation of Cygnus. If you look hard enough at the purple […]
Sunflower Galaxy – M63
A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, M63 is about 25 million light-years distant in the constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is […]
M56 – Globular Cluster
If our Sun were near the center of M56, the night sky would glow like a jewel box of bright stars. Hundreds of stars would glow brighter than Sirius, and […]
Iris Nebula – NGC 7023
Like delicate cosmic petals, these clouds of interstellar dust and gas that have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus, evoke the imagery of flowers. Within the Iris, […]
Running Man Nebula
This is the Running Man Nebula. Found along the sword of Orion just north of the bright Orion Nebula complex, these nebulae are also associated with Orion’s giant molecular cloud […]
Saturn
The planet with the rings!
M106 Galaxy
It is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. It is also a Seyfert […]
Florence – The largest asteroid to pass Earth in a century
As some of you may have read, a rather large asteroid passed by Earth just a few hours back. Florence measures 2.7 miles (4.4km) in diameter and will not pose […]
Jupiter & Venus Conjunction on 8/26/16
Venus and Jupiter happened to be pretty much next to each other last night. It doesn’t mean that they are close to each other. Venus is ~225 million KMs (1.5 […]
Flame Nebula
My first picture from New Mexico….. Flame Nebula. Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies the nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears, […]
NGC5982 – Draco Trio
This trio of galaxies is sometimes called the Draco Trio, located in the northern constellation of (you guessed it) Draco. From top to bottom are edge-on spiral NGC 5981, elliptical […]
M15 Globular Cluster
Next is a Globular Cluster named M15. A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as a satellite mini-galaxy. Globular clusters are very tightly […]
M76 – Little Dumbbell Nebula
Also known by the popular name the “Little Dumbbell Nebula”, M76 is one of the fainter objects listed in Charles Messier’s 18th century Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters. Like […]
Splinter Galaxy (ngc5907)
Also known as the Knife Edge or Splinter galaxy, NGC 5907 is an edge-on spiral galaxy. We see it like a knife edge, as we see it from the side, […]
M3 – Globular Cluster
M3 – A globular cluster – is an immense ball of half a million stars older than the Sun, held in gravitational embrace by a large black hole (about 5000 […]
Asteroid Tracking
I basically take 3 images 30 minutes apart of the asteroid and use a software to analyze the extent of the movement of the asteroid over 1 hour. The software […]