This gorgeous image of the region of sky between Taurus’ triangular face and the bright orange star Aldebaran and the blue Pleiades star Cluster was taken by Amir H. Abolfath using his Canon EOS6D camera on a Star Adventurer mount. It covers a span of sky of about 19 degrees (two fist diameters) top-to-bottom, and…
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This terrific image of the sword of Orion was taken on January 7, 2019 by Rick Foster of Markham, Ontario. The colourful Messier 42 nebula is glowing by the light of young stars formed within it. The area shown here covers about 2 finger widths of the sky. Hello, mid-winter stargazers! Here are your Astronomy…
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This image of Messier 35, also nick-named the Shoe-Buckle Cluster, was captured by Fred Espenak on March 29, 2011 from his home in Arizona. He affixed his Canon EOS 550D camera to a Takahashi 180mm Astrograph telescope. The photo spans about a thumb’s width top to bottom. Messier 35 is about 2800 light-years away from…
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This amazing composite image by Detlef Hartmann shows the continued expansion of the Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant (aka Messier 1) in Taurus over 10 years (Sept 29, 2008 through Sept 22, 2017). It spans about 0.1 degrees of the sky. In the heart of the nebula sits a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits radio…
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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 all-sky image from November, 1998 by Juraj Toth of Modra Observatory, operated by Comenius University in Bratislava, shows about 100 Leonids meteors emanating from the region of sky near Leo. It was compiled during a 4 hour period. NASA APOD for November 4, 2001 Hello, mid-November Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the…
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Ian Wheelband captured this close-up view of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) at 4:17 am on July 11, 2020 from his home in Nova Scotia. Note the brighter tail composed of dropped particles, and the slightly offset ion tail to its left. The stacked, combined 4- and 10-second exposure photograph was taken using his Nikon D7100…
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This image of the Messier 13 globular star cluster in Hercules was taken by Martin Pugh. The cluster is composed of thousands of old, blue and yellow stars collected into a spherical ball orbiting our galaxy’s core. It’s located about 25,000 light-years from our sun. This image spans about 30 by 40 arc-minutes, slightly larger…
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A photograph of the multiple star Asellus in Boötes, from Stellarium’s digital sky survey (DSS). Hello, June Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of Jue 7th, 2020 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics. You can also follow…
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This inverted picture of the crescent Venus was taken by holding my smartphone over the eyepiece of my telescope at 9 pm on Thursday, May 21, 2020. The crescent was also visible in binoculars. If you have clear skies after sunset in the next several days, have a go! Hello, Late-May Stargazers! Here are your…
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