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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A composite image by Yin Hao of 37 frames spanning 8.5 hours of time on Dec 12/13 of the 2017 Geminids Meteor Shower. The meteors, streaks of ionized gas in Earth’s upper atmosphere, appear to be radiating from the twin stars Castor and Pollux at upper left – while Orion at lower right looks on.…
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The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57, in Lyra is visible in backyard telescopes as a small, grey ring. This image was taken by Ron Brecher of Guelph, Ontario on July 25, 2012. Ron’s gallery of astro-images can be accessed at www.astrodoc.ca Hello, August Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of…
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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…
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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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This image of globular star cluster Messier 13 was captured by Martin Pugh of New South Wales, Australia. Left to right, it spans 40 arc-minutes, or 1.3 times the full moon’s diameter. The cluster, which could hold up to million yellow and blue stars, is approximately 23,000 light years away from our solar system. NASA…
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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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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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Globular star Cluster Messier 2 aka NGC 7089 is located 55,000 light-years from our sun in the constellation of Aquarius. In binoculars and backyard telescopes, the cluster will appear as a faint fuzzy patch of light – as opposed to this spectacular Hubble space Telescope image from earlier this year. NASA APOD for April 4,…
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The beautiful Triangulum Galaxy, also known as Messier 33, dim because it is oriented nearly face-on to Earth, spans 1.5 full moon diameters in the sky. Some people have been able to see it with unaided eyes. At 2.75 million light-years from Earth – that’s the farthest object a human eye can see! This image…
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