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Night - fifty eight - The Bow TIe Nebula

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Image
Here is first image off of the Dwarf 3 from last night's imaging of the Bow Tie Nebula. The target is exceptionally tiny in the center of this field. Here is the cropped image of this nebula. This nebula formed when an evolved star entered its white dwarf phase of evolution and expelled its outer layers. As the star’s gaseous outer envelope moves away from the star, it is heated by the ultraviolet radiation from the stellar remnant to temperatures of about 10,000 degrees Celsius. As a result, the shell of ejected material becomes visible and glows as a planetary nebula. The Bow-Tie Nebula has the shape of a barrel, with two pairs of lobes near the poles. The lobes were created by additional ejections of material from the central star. The barrel-like main cavity is surrounded by a set of concentric rings visible in the optical and infrared bands. Ths Dwarf 3 scope is excellent but objects of this size fail to provide a great deal of reward. Just too small to say that ...
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Night - Fifty seven - The Teddy Bear Nebula

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Image
Not much written about this region. Here is what Rod Pommier said about his image which is directly below - "Sharpless2-171 is part of a bigger nebula, NGC 7822, in Cepheus. It is an emission nebula with elephant trunks, or pillars, carved by stellar winds of the hot bright stars within the nebula. However, to me, this nebula looks like a teddy bear staring straight at us from space. The two brightest stars are its eyes, it has large, round red ears, a brown nose, and an inverted V-shaped mouth line. Michael Bakich, photography editor of Astronomy magazine, agreed with me and published this image as “The Teddy Bear Nebula”." Here is his image: Here is my image: These are 60 second images and the Dwarf3 stacked 210 of those images over a period of 4 hours. On November 16th, 2011 this image of NGC7822 (Teddy Bear) graced the Astronomy Photo of the Day website:
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Night - Fifty six - The Iris Nebula, CED 187, A reflection Nebula in Cepheus

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The Iris Nebula is a stunning reflection nebula notable for its flower-like appearance, complex structure, and rich chemical composition. Its central binary star illuminates the surrounding dust, creating a visually striking object that is both scientifically significant and a favorite among amateur astronomers and astrophotographers. This nebula is known for its rosebud-shaped structure and the young stars that have blown a large, irregular bubble in the surrounding molecular cloud.
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Night - Fifty five - The Cocoon Nebula

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Image
These images are of the Cocoon Nebula, a cluster of stars involved in a bright and dark nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The dark nebula Barnard 168 (B168) is an inseparable part of the experience, forming a dark dust lane that surrounds the cluster and projects to the right forming the appearance of a trail behind the Cocoon. The Cacoon Nebula is a stellar nursery where star-formation is ongoing. Observations by both the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory have collectively identified hundreds of young stellar objects. In this image, the dust lane is visible off to the nebula's right. Final image zoomed in. This nebula qualified to be the image in NASA's Astronomy Photo of the day back in 2024 (image by Luis Romero Ventura).
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Night - Fifty four -- Star trails

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From a campground at Lake Kachese. Four hours of photographs, each image 30 seconds long.
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Night - Fifity three - Messier 102

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I think this was a night with a mistake. I had begun the evening targeting The Splinter Galaxy, but by the time I set up the telescope, I had mistakenly entered The Spindle Galaxy as my target. The Spindle Galaxy is Messier 102 and is located in the constellation Draco the Dragon. The Splinter Galaxy is located above and to the left corner of The Spindle so it is in the image, but way off center and clipped by what appears to be a plane that was not dropped out of the stacked image. Here is the original image of Messier 102, The Spindle Galaxy, centered in this image. Here is a zoomed in image of Messier 102, the Spindle Galaxy. Finally, here is a zoomed in image of The Splinter Galaxy or The Knife Edge Galaxy. The plane's path more visible in this image. This final image is not mine, but it is so striking that I wanted to include it. This Splinter Galaxy has a stream of material or a stream structure surrounding it. Photo by R. Jay GaBany. Enjoy!
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Night - Fifty two - The Owl Nebula (M 97)

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The Owl Nebula (also known as Messier 97, M97) is a planetary nebula approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Estimated to be about 8,000 years old, it is approximately circular in cross-section with a faint internal structure. Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. They simply appeared kinda like planets in telescopes long ago, their glowing disks suggesting a name that linked them to actual planetary disks. The summer sky is filled with planetary nebulae, and these objects give us a look at our solar system’s future. Some 6 billion years from now our Sun will transform into a white dwarf star and a planetary nebulae envelope, long after life on Earth is gone. The Owl Nebula, lying in our sky below the bowl of the Big Dipper, is a great example. Catalogued as Messier 97, the Owl is a bright planetary named for its two dark “eyes,” and it consists of three distinct shells. The asymmetry of the inner shell, with a barrel-like structure tipped...
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