This image of the Wild Duck Cluster, also known as Messier 11 and NGC 6705 in Scutum covers a patch of sky equal to the diameter of the full moon. The magnitude 6.3 open star cluster is visible with unaided eyes and through binoculars and telescopes, despite its 6200 light-year distance. It was taken using…
Read more
A sampling of galaxy forms. Clockwise from upper left: Messier 87 “Virgo A” (elliptical), Messier 102 “Spindle” (lenticular), NGC 1365 (barred spiral), NGC 4656 “the Crowbar” (irregular), and Messier 81 “Bode’s Nebula” (spiral). All except NGC 1365 are visible on spring evenings from mid-northern latitudes. Hello, late-April Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the…
Read more
This beautiful image shows the glowing pink hydrogen gas of the Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237) in Monoceros (the Unicron) and its internal star cluster NGC 2244. It was captured by Stan Noble of Swift Current, Saskatchewan in 2017/18. The Rosette, which covers about a thumb’s width of sky, can be seen in binoculars in a…
Read more
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…
Read more
The faint Witch’s Head Nebula aka NGC 1909 and IC 2118, is a ghostly reflection nebula near the bright star Rigel in Orion. It’s very large – stretching nearly three finger widths from her chin to her forehead! Image by Jeff Signorelli, NASA APOD for Oct 30, 2015 Happy Halloween week, Stargazers! Here are your…
Read more
The well-known Pleiades open star cluster (Messier 45) has long been the centre of indigenous star stories around the world, including South Pacific island groups. The Maori of New Zealand tie their new year to the appearance of the Pleiades in the pre-dawn sky during June/July. The area of sky shown here spans 2 degrees.…
Read more
The prominent galaxies Messier 81 or Bode’s Nebula (left) and Messier 82 or the Cigar Galaxy (right) are located near the Big Dipper’s bowl in the northern sky. This image by AstroDoc Ron Brecher of Guelph, Ontario from February, 2017 spans about 1.5 degrees, or three full moon diameters. Messier 81 is large and bright…
Read more
This image of Orion’s Sword by my friend John Deans includes the Great Nebula in Orion, also known as Messier 42 and Messier 43, at centre. The bright knot of stars in the centre of the nebula were born out of the gas around them and are illuminating the nebula. The patch of nebulosity at…
Read more
An ISS transit on Thursday night, January 21 will pass across the moon’s disk for 0.6 seconds at 6:08:39.8 pm EST. The pass will be observable by observers across Port Perry, northern Toronto / southern Richmond Hill, Brampton, and Cambridge, Ontario. Find details at https://transit-finder.com/ and www.astrogeo.ca/skylights/. This image by Eric Holland was taken from…
Read more
This stunning image of Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was captured in cottage country, near Haliburton, Ontario, by Kersti Meema of Toronto using her Canon T7i camera. She took the image at 11:15 EDT on July 13, 2020. Serendipitously, she also captured an auroral display! The fainter, blue ion tail of the comet can be discerned…
Read more