My neighbour is a pilot and captured this terrific image of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), complete with anti-tail pointing downward, on October 14 while en route. That’s Venus at lower left, Arcturus a bit higher at right, and the star 110 Virginis directly above the comet. Hello, Late-October Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for…
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The globular cluster NGC 6934 in Delphinus as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is also known as Caldwell 47. This image covers about 3 arc-minutes of the sky, or 1/10th of the full moon’s diameter. (Wikipedia) Hello, Autumn Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of September 22nd, 2024 by Chris…
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This gorgeous image of the Omega Nebula aka the Swan Nebula and Messier 17 in Sagittarius was captured at the Texas Star Party by Trevor Jones. I have rotated it by 90 degrees to better show the swan shape at centre. The image width is double the size of the full moon. The emission nebula…
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This view of the southern evening sky at 11 pm local time for the latitude of Toronto shows how the Milky Way rises from the southern horizon and arcs across the eastern sky at this time of the year. The coloured symbols and labels are a selection of the brighter deep sky objects sprinkled available…
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This image of the Snowglobe Globular Star Cluster (aka NGC 5466) in Boötes simulates the view through a telescope at 132x. The area covered by the red circular viewport covers a bit more than the full moon’s size in the sky. On a dark night, the cluster can be seen as a faint fuzzy patch…
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The prominent galaxies Messier 81 or Bode’s Nebula (left) and Messier 82 or the Cigar Galaxy (right) are located near the Big Dipper’s bowl in the northern sky. This image by AstroDoc Ron Brecher of Guelph, Ontario from February, 2017 spans about 1.5 degrees, or three full moon diameters. Messier 81 is large and bright…
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This simulated view of the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse from the vantage point of the sun shows the spherical moon’s round shadow cast upon the Earth at 18:16 Greenwich Mean Time (or 2:16 pm EDT). The motion of the moon will cause the shadow to complete its passage in several hours. We never see…
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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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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 is a portrait of the two groups of half-sisters related in mythology as daughters of Atlas: the Hyades, at left, and the blue Pleiades, at right, two nearby open star clusters in Taurus, imaged by Alan Dyer from Quailway Cottage in southwest Arizona, December 15, 2017. The bright, orange star at far left is…
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