Aug 5, 2023

Wolf - Rayet 134 (and WR 135...)

The so-called Wolf-Rayet stars are a rare set of stars that exhibit very uncommon spectra showing outstanding broad emission lines of ionized helium, nitrogen or carbon. Their surface temperatures are between 20.000 K and 200.000 K higher than most other types of stars... Read more



Aug 4, 2023

Widefield in Cygnus with Crescent nebula and Wolf-Rayet 134

This image started out as an auxiliary image to be taken with my FSQ-106 N to get just some RGB data for the stars for my narrowband image of WR 134....

But the FSQ is such a nice instrument that I quickly saw that this field deserved an image of its own.

Total exposure time is about 12 hours in 5 minutes sub-exposures... Read more



Jul 3, 2023

M 78

M78, also known as NGC2068, is a bright reflection nebula within the Orion molecular cloud complex. This wide-field image also includes the bright nebulae NGC7129, NGC2067 and NGC2064. This group of nebulae is located about 1500 light-years from Earth and many Herbig-Haro objects (energetic jets of forming stars) ... Read more



Jun 16, 2023

Iris Nebula (NGC 7023)

NGC7023 (also known as the Iris nebula and Caldwell 4) is a bright reflection nebula located in the constellation Cepheus. Its unusual structure of interstellar gas and dust clouds evokes the image of an iris flower. The dusty blue petals of the Iris nebula spread out over six light-years… Read more



May 25, 2023

NGC1333 reflection nebula in Perseus molecular cloud

Although NGC 1333 is catalogued as a reflection nebula located in constellation Perseus, it is in fact a more complex object that it is part of the Perseus molecular cloud. It lies approximately 1000 light years away from us and is about 15 light years across… Read more



May 10, 2023

Abell 39

Abell 39 (also known as PN A66 39 and PK 47+42.1) is the 39th entry in 1966 Abell Catalogue of Planetary Nebulae, compiled by George Abell in 1966 with data obtained from the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS).. Read more



Apr 19, 2023

M97 the Owl Nebula and M108 the Snowboard Galaxy

M97, the Owl nebula (also known as Messier 97 or NGC 3587) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Ursa Major.

It is one of the four planetary nebulae included in the Messier catalogue and was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain... Read more (updated 25/04/2023)