Earthshine on the young crescent moon, captured by Michael watson on March 8, 2019. You can view more of Michael’s images on his Flickr page. Hello, Winter Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of January 7th, 2024 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me…
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The beautiful Rosette Nebula in Monoceros consists of a circular patch of glowing hydrogen gas and an internal star cluster, created as the hydrogen gas collapsed. Stan Noble tool this image, which was featured as the SkyNews picture of the week for November 3, 2017, in Aneroid, Saskatchewan. The image spans about two finger widths…
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This wonderful image was captured around 8:30 pm EST on Saturday, February 11, 2023 by Andrea Girones from her backyard in Ottawa, Canada. It shows the green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) as it slid past reddish Mars. The dusty tail is material left behind as the comet travels downwards (celestial southbound) in the sky. The…
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The Sword of Orion imaged by John Deans in Bancroft, Ontario on February 2021. This image covers about a thumb’s width of sky, top-to-bottom. The trapezium cluster lies in the heart of the nebula (above centre). Hello, March Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of February 27th, 2022 by Chris Vaughan. Feel…
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With unaided eyes, three patches of light make up the sword of Orion, which hangs below his famous 3-starred belt. My friend John Deans of Toronto captured this image of Orion’s Sword while in Bancroft during February, 2021. Even binoculars will reveal that the central patch of light is the splendid Orion Nebula, also known…
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This long exposure image by Steve Cannistra covers 4 degrees (8 full moon diameters) left-right. It shows the rich nebulae that lurk in the centre of Auriga’s ring of bright stars, especially the Flaming Star Nebula (top left). This image was APOD for Feb 24, 2012. More of Steve’s images can be viewed at http://www.starrywonders.com/…
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This lovely widefield image of Auriga (the Charioteer) was taken by Alan Dyer of Calgary on January 23, 2011. It nicely shows the rich clusters and star fields that populate that constellation’s circlet of stars. The Flaming star Nebula is the red patch. Other knots of stars are open clusters. Capella, or Alpha Aurigae, is…
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The bright and large open star cluster known as the Pleiades or Messier 45 is composed of sibling stars (the daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology) that formed of the same gas cloud. Interstellar dust in the foreground scatters the stars’ light with a blue colour. The cluster is very easily seen with…
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This image of the Winter Hexagon / Football was taken by Jeff Dai. Start with bright Sirius just above the hills at lower right, then head straight up to Rigel, and to the upper left to reddish Betelgeuse, and then bright yellow Capella on the left. Next head down to Castor and Pollux, and finally…
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