Astronomy photos from the Dwarf 3 telescope

This is not an actual object, but instead a highly concentrated area of stars. The Sagittarius Star Cloud can be seen at any time that the Milky Way itself is visible. In good conditions, the star cloud’s size and brightness make it easy to find without binoculars. M24 is unique among Messier objects, which are mostly single, well-defined deep sky objects – star clusters, nebulae and galaxies – while the star cloud is not really a deep sky object but a collection of millions of stars found along the plane of the Milky Way and seen through a gap in the galaxy’s dust lanes. Without the obscuring dust and gas, the entire Milky Way would appear as bright as M24.

Taken from the driveway again. The recognizable shape of the North American Nebula is visible on the left side of the image, the Pelican on the right side. The Pelican Nebula is an emission nebula located near the bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Named for its resemblance to a pelican, the nebula is associated with the neighbouring North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and is one of several notable nebulae found in the area of the Northern Cross. It is an active star forming region with a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The position and balance of the stars and gas will gradually change to leave the nebula looking completely different millions of years from now. This image was a shutter speed of 60 seconds, a gain of 80 and there were 300 images stacked to create the final image. I am a beginner, but the detail that this little telescope is providing of these objects so distant is amazing.

Second evening in a row the set up was in my driveway. This is the Eastern Veil Nebula. Caldwell 33 is part of an extensive supernova remnant known as the Veil Nebula (or the Cygnus Loop). Caldwell 33 is often called the Eastern Veil Nebula. This supernova remnant is so large that two nights ago I imaged the Western Veil Nebula and last night was the Eastern Veil Nebula. The fast-moving blast wave from the supernova explosion is plowing into a wall of cool, denser interstellar gas, emitting light and forcing twisting tendrils of gas into a ballet. The nebula lies along the edge of a large bubble of low-density gas that was blown into space by the dying star prior to its self-detonation. By comparing these 2015 observations to images taken by Hubble in 1997, astronomers can study how the nebula has expanded in the intervening 18 years.

Set up the telscope in my driveway last night with a Northern target. This is the Veil Nebula. It is a supernova remnant. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky. The Veil Nebula is expanding at a velocity of about 1.5 million kilometers per hour which is 932,000 miles per hour. Using images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 1997 and 2015, the expansion of the Veil Nebula has been directly observed.

This image of the Lagoon Nebula wastaken at Potholes State Park Campground. Very breezy evening, thought the camera might get jostled around but the image looks OK. Located approximately 4,000–6,000 light-years from Earth, the nebula spans 110 by 50 light-years. While appearing pink in long-exposure photographs, it typically appears gray when viewed through binoculars or telescopes due to the human eye's limited color sensitivity in low-light conditions. The Lagoon Nebula is located in the constellation Sagittarius which is so low in the Southern sky that I can't image this from our house due to the trees blocking the view. This nebula is Messier 8.