This spectacular image by my friend Andrea Girones was taken recently at Morant’s Curve, Alberta using a DSLR with a 20mm lens on a star tracking mount. It captures the arc of faintly glowing reddish hydrogen gas around Orion and the nimbus around his head (at left), the bright compact Rosette Nebula (upper left), Mars…
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The beautiful Rosette Nebula in Monoceros consists of a circular patch of glowing hydrogen gas and an internal star cluster, created as the hydrogen gas collapsed. Stan Noble tool this image, which was featured as the SkyNews picture of the week for November 3, 2017, in Aneroid, Saskatchewan. The image spans about two finger widths…
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The relatively bright galaxy named NGC 2903 sits in front of Leo, the Lion’s nose, just below the reddish star Alterf. The magnitude 9 spiral galaxy is visible in medium-sized telescope under dark sky conditions. End-to-end the galaxy spans 11 arc-minutes, or one-third of the full moon’s diameter! While it didn’t make Charles Messier’s List,…
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This beautiful image of Gemini’s Messier 35 and the smaller, but denser open star cluster NGC 2158 (below right of centre) was captured by “Mr. Eclipse” himself, Fred Espenak. Two more small open clusters shine at the far right – squint to see them! The image spans two thumb widths, or 2.5 angular degrees, left…
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A labelled map of the Mare Imbrium region of the moon, shown for 8 pm on Friday, March 3. On the previous evenings, the pole-to-pole lunar terminator will sweep across Mare Imbrium, highlighting its features. (Starry Night Pro 8) Hello, Fellow Moongazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of February 26th, 2023 by…
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This terrific image of the Orion’s sword was taken on January 7, 2019 by Rick Foster of Markham, Ontario. Even binoculars will reveal that the central patch of light is the splendid Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42. The grouping of bright stars at bottom right are “the Lost Jewel of Orion’s Sword”, particularly…
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This wonderful image was captured around 8:30 pm EST on Saturday, February 11, 2023 by Andrea Girones from her backyard in Ottawa, Canada. It shows the green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) as it slid past reddish Mars. The dusty tail is material left behind as the comet travels downwards (celestial southbound) in the sky. The…
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This image by Michael Watson from September, 2017 shows the sliver of shadow that appears along its right-hand (eastern) limbs just hours after it is officially full. Hello, February Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of February 5th, 2023 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and…
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This terrific image by Gabor Balazs shows the bright planet Mars (top centre) shining between the little Pleiades CLuster (right of centre) and the V-shaped Hyades Cluster, which forms the face of Taurus, the Bull in late December, 2022. The bright reddish star Aldebaran shines at the corner of the V. The image spans about…
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This amazing image of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) shows the narrow blue ion tail and the broad dusty debris tail. Celestial north is up. It was imaged by Michael Jäger of Austria on January 20, 2023 at 1:40 UT. He posted it on Twitter, where you can find a fantastic animated version. Follow him at…
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