Night - Fortyseven The Croc's Eye Galaxy, M 94

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Hubble image of M94

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Night Thirtyfive - The Gulf of Mexico Nebula

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Take a moment to examine the first image. On the left side is a nebula that allows us to imagine the entire North American Continent. Florida and Mexico are clearly visible. On the right side of the image is imagined to be a pelican with its head and beak facing across the Atlantic Ocean towards North America. The Gulf of Mexico Nebula is a dark nebula located in the constellation Cepheus, approximately 500 light-years away from Earth. Unlike emission nebulae, dark nebulae do not emit light and are visible only by blocking out the light from background stars . This is one of the largest dark nebulae in the night sky and spans over 5 degrees in the sky, equivalent to roughly 10 times the size of the full moon. The dark nebula appears as a large, irregularly shaped cloud of dust and gas obscuring the background stars’ light. This makes it a fascinating object for both amateur and professional astronomers to study, as it provides a glimpse into the hidden world of interstellar gas and ...
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Night Fortythree - The Whirlpool Galaxy

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First night out in a long while between health and weather. Returned to M 51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. Wikipedia says - What later became known as the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered on October 13, 1773, by Charles Messier while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier's catalogue as M51.[13] William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, employing a 72-inch (1.8 m) reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland, found that the Whirlpool possessed a spiral structure, the first "nebula" to be known to have one.[14] These "spiral nebulae" were not recognized as galaxies until Edwin Hubble was able to observe Cepheid variables in some of these spiral nebulae, which provided evidence that they were so far away that they must be entirely separate galaxies.[15] The advent of radio astronomy and subsequent radio images of M51 unequivocally demonstrated that the Whirlpool and its companion galaxy are indeed interacting.
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Night Thirtysix - Elephant's Trunk Nebula

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The Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth. The nebula is a dark, dense globule that gets its name from its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive multiple star (HD 206267) that is just to the east of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula . The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays. (The Index Catalogue (IC) —also known as the Index Catalogue of Nebulae, the Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, is a catalogue of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters that serves as a supplement to the New General Catalogue. It was first published ...
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