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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Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! This beautiful object is called the Rosette Nebula (or NGC 2244). It’s located in the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn), just to the left (east) of Orion. The Rosette is a cradle of glowing Hydrogen gas that has birthed about 2500 young stars in its centre. This image…
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This wide field image of Orion was captured on January 2, 2020 by Alan Dyer of Alberta, Canada. Orange-tinted Betelgeuse, which marks Orion’s shoulder (top centre), normally shines as bright as Orion’s opposite foot – the bright, blue star Rigel. In the last few weeks, Betelgeuse has diminished noticeably in apparent brightness – a possible…
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This wide field photograph of the sky shows Orion at left and Taurus to the upper right. The stars have been slightly overexposed to emphasize their colours and relative brightnesses. Normally, reddish Betelgeuse at Orion’s shoulder (left above centre) is the same brightness as blue Rigel at Orion’s opposite foot. But recent images shows Betelgeuse…
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This image of the beautiful Superman Galaxy, more formally known as NGC7479 and Caldwell 44, was captured by Goran Nilsson using the 2-metre Liverpool Telescope on the Canary Islands. The galaxy is 105 million light-years away from the sun, in the constellation of Pegasus. It’s also considered by astronomers to be “peculiar”. Hello, December Stargazers!…
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This long exposure image by Bill Longo of Toronto shows the trail produced by the International Space Station when Expedition 41 flew over the David Dunlap Observatory in 2014. Bill’s gallery of beautiful images can be explored at https://interceptedphotons.com/ Happy December, Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of December 8th, 2019 by…
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While we’re used to looking for the Lunar X that appears every few months near the first quarter phase, a group of Japanese astronomers decided to add a little LOVE to the half-illuminated moon. This image by Masaru Takeo and Junichi Watanabe was NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 3, 2018. See if…
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