This spectacular long exposure composite combines twenty photographs of the Orionids Meteor Shower taken on October 21, 2006 near Bursa, Turkey by Tunc Tezel. It was NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 23, 2206. Orion, with his distinctive belt, shines at top centre. The shower’s radiant is at top left. Happy, mid-October, Stargazers!…
Read more
This Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image shows Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows, on the northwestern edge of large Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Clouds. The “Golden Handle” is the curved Jura Mountains, the remains of an impact crater that has been flooded by basalt magma flows. The feature, which is easy to see without a…
Read more
This image of the bright globular cluster Messier 15 in Pegasus was taken by Ron Brecher in February, 2015. This image spans about one degree of the sky. Ron’s galleries of fine astro-images can be enjoyed at his website www.astrodoc.ca Hello, October Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of October 3rd, 2021…
Read more
This image of the Iris Nebula in Cepheus was captured through a RASA 11-inch f/2.2 Astrograph telescope and a ZWO ASI294MC Pro CCD camera by Gary Colwell at the North Frontenac Dark Sky Preserve northeast of Toronto, Canada. It shows both the reflection nebulosity and the surrounding dark dusty regions. The image spans 1.5 degrees…
Read more
When Callisto’s round, black shadow crosses Jupiter on Friday night, September 17 between 6:15 pm and 11 pm EDT, it will be on, or near, the Great Red Spot – as shown in this simulated view for 8 pm EDT. The shadow will gradually slide to the left of the spot as Jupiter’s rotation outpaces…
Read more
This gorgeous image of the North America Nebula, and the Pelican Nebula to its right, was captured by Roman Kulesza. The pink colour arises from glowing hydrogen gas. Opaque dust in the foreground is separating the single large gas cloud into two nebulas, and producing the unique shapes. It was the SkyNews Photo of the…
Read more
This full-disk image of the sun in visible wavelengths was taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite on August 29, 2021. It shows the huge sunspot group designated AR2860 that is currently visible by anyone using safely filtered telescopes, pinhole projectors, and eclipse viewers. That active region is emitting strong M-class flares. Visit Spaceweather.com and…
Read more
This photograph of the moon by Michael Watson of Toronto was taken 9 hours after its full phase. It will closely match the appearance of the moon after it rises on Sunday night, August 22 in the Americas. A thin strip along the moon’s right-hand limb will already be darkening, and the craters there will…
Read more
This amazing composite image by my friend Bill Longo of Toronto was captured in 2015. The International Space Station pass was part of his imaging plan. But the Perseids Meteor shower peak also delivering an aurora borealis (greens and purple) was pure luck! Hello, Perseids Enthusiasts! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of…
Read more
The Ghost of the Moon planetary nebula aka NGC 6781 in Aquila, photographed by the European Southern Observatory 3.6-m Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The image spans 4.5 arc-minutes of sky, or 15% of the full moon. The object is an expanding sphere of gas – the outer shells…
Read more