This image of the North American Nebula was captured in 2018 near Thornbury, Ontario by my friend Sailu Nemana. Several of the surrounding bright stars and star clusters within it are highlighted. The Pelican Nebula (at right) is formed by the dark dust of LDN 935. The re/pink colour is produced by ionized hydrogen gas.…
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My friend Denise Chilton took this terrific image of the completely eclipsed sun from southeastern Quebec on April 8, 2024. The shape of the white corona will be replicated in all the totality photos from that day. Her image also captured the large pink prominence that extended beyond the southern pole of the moon. Hello,…
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This fantastic widefield composite image of the 2020 Quadrantids meteor shower over Flajšová, Oravská Lesná, Slovakia was captured by Czech astronomer Petr Horálek on the nights bracketing the peak of January 4.The radiant is out of frame to top left. That year, the star Betelgeuse in Orion (right of centre) was unusually dim. The glowing…
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On November 24, 2021 Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) passed between two well-known galaxies, the Whale (top right) and the Hockey Stick (lower left), otherwise known as NGC 4631 and NGC 4656, respectively. Gregg Ruppel of Tucson, Arizona captured this beautiful image of the rendezvous through his telescope-mounted astro-camera. This image, which spans 1 degrees of…
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Bright stars can still be appreciated when the moon is full and bright, as it will be this week. This image from Stellarium shows the central part of the constellation Perseus, the Hero. His brightest star Mirfak, aka Alpha Persei, is at centre. Surrounding Mirfak is a large grouping of bright, young, hot stars known…
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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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