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IC 4605 - The Blue Angel Nebula
Inside the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, in the constellation Scorpius,
lies The Blue Angel Nebula. This is a reflection nebula with a very active
star-forming region embedded in the bright area just below center. The other
stars that illuminate their surrounding gases are brand-new, hot stars.
The region sits between 400-700 light-years away.
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Sh2-308 - The Dolphin Head Nebula
Not far from Sirius, the Dog Star, in the constellation Canis Major,
lies the Dolphin Head Nebula. It is located in a Ha region. The nebula
began its life about 70,000 years ago as the star in the center blew
off its outer layers as it began its pre-supernova phase of life, and
is made up of mostly Hydrogen and Oxygen gases. It sits about 4530
light-years away and 60 light-years wide. The center star (EZ Canis Majoris)
is a Wolf-Rayet star which means that it is extremely hot and luminous.
It is pushing the expanding gases outward at roughly 3.8 million mph
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Sh2-308 - The Dolphin Head Nebula
This is simply a more zoomed-in view of the Dolphin Head Nebula to the left
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IC 59 (Sh2-185) - The Ghost of Cassiopeia
IC 59 is both an emission and reflection nebula situated in the constellation
of Cassiopeia. It sits around 600 light-years from Earth. When imaged with
RGB filters, it usually appears blue in color. However, this image was shot
with narrowband filters (SHO) which allows the processing to be done in just
about any color scheme. The central star (Gamma Cassiopeiae) appears to be a circular
blue planetary nebula. This is just an artifact of the gaseous material in
the area. IC 63 is directly below the central star, while IC 59 is at its
4 o'clock position
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: January 2025
- Mount: 10 Micron GM1000HPs
- Telescope: Nikon 200 F/2 CHI-5
- Camera: FLI ML16200
- Exposure: 55x5 min LRGB 4hrs 35min
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- Location: Heaven's Mirror Obs, Australia
- Date: December 2023
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: FSQ-106ED AUS-2
- Camera: QHY600m @-25c CMOS
- Exposure: 173x5 min HOO 14hrs 20min
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- Location: Heaven's Mirror Obs, Australia
- Date: December 2023
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: FSQ-106ED AUS-2
- Camera: QHY600m @-25c CMOS
- Exposure: 173x5 min HOO 14hrs 20min
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- Location: IC Astronomy Observatory, Spain
- Date: February 2025
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED SPA-1
- Camera: FLI PL16083
- Exposure: 27x5 min SHO 2hrs 15min
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LDN 1251 - The Rotten Fish Nebula
This dark nebula is a molecular cloud and sits about 1000 light-years
away from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. LDN stands for Lynds' Dark
Nebula. Even though we can't see all of the star-forming activity with
visual telescopes, radio and infrared observations allow us to peer into the interior
to see that there are a considerable number of new and forming stars.
The far right side of the nebula appears to have a bow shock wave, leading
astronomers to believe that the entire nebula is moving through space at
about Mach 2
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NGC 281 - The Pac-Man Nebula
Way out in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way lies NGC 281, located in the
constellation Cassiopeia. This bright emission nebula sits about 9500
light-years away and has a diameter of roughly 96 light-years
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LDN 43 (Lynds' Dark Nebulae) - The Cosmic Bat Nebula
This dark nebula, in the constellation Ophiuchus, is a little deceptive
in its appearance. The dark nebula that has the bat shape is actually in
front of another, larger bright nebula behind it, which gives it the look
of a bat. The background nebula provides enough illumination to contrast
the dark structure, while the bright areas inside the nebula are due to
stellar nurseries where numerous new stars have formed and are still forming.
It sits about 1400 light-years away and is about 9 light-years wide
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IC 2220
IC 2220 is also known as the Toby Jug Nebula. It sits in the constellation
Carina, about 1200 light-years away. It is a reflection nebula
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- Location: Italy
- Date: July 2025
- Mount: Unknown
- Telescope: ASA N10 T-23
- Camera: Player One Mono 571
- Exposure: 237x10 min LRGB 19hrs 35min
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- Location: USA
- Date: October - November 2017
- Mount: Unknown
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: FLI Proline PL16803
- Exposure: 36x3 min RGB 1hr 15min
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: March 2025
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: QHY600m @-25c CHI-1
- Exposure: 54x5 min LRGB 4hrs 30min
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: March 22, 2020
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: FLI PL9000 @-25c CHI-1 CCD
- Exposure: 9x10 min LRGB 90min
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LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat Nebula
What a cool bat! This one is a dark nebula that is lit up from the inside
by hot, young stars. The exterior is lit by nearby LDN 7, another stellar
nursery. From wingtip to wingtip it is about 12 light-years across. It sits
about 1400 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. This one and
the next two were taken with a wide-field camera (382mm), I zoomed in a
couple of times. The Cosmic Bat a couple of rows above was taken with the
24" Planewave
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LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat Nebula
A little closer now
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LDN 43 - The Cosmic Bat Nebula
Up close and personal
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Sh2-103 - The Veil Nebula
The Veil Nebula is just a small part of the much larger Cygnus Loop.
It consists of many sub-objects with their own names and designation
numbers. It was formed when a star about 100 times the size of the Sun
went supernova between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. This version was
post-processed in the HOS palette
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- Location: Heaven's Mirror Obs, Australia
- Date: February - July 2025
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: FSQ-106ED AUS-2
- Camera: QHY600m @-25c CMOS
- Exposure: 120x5 min HOO 10hrs
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- Location: Heaven's Mirror Obs, Australia
- Date: February - July 2025
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: FSQ-106ED AUS-2
- Camera: QHY600m @-25c CMOS
- Exposure: 120x5 min HOO 10hrs
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- Location: Heaven's Mirror Obs, Australia
- Date: February - July 2025
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: FSQ-106ED AUS-2
- Camera: QHY600m @-25c CMOS
- Exposure: 120x5 min HOO 10hrs
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- Location: IC Astronomy Observatory, Spain
- Date: June - July 2023
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED SPA-1
- Camera: FLI PL16083
- Exposure: 54x5 min HOS 4hrs 30min
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Sh2-103 - The Veil Nebula
This is the same image as the preceding one—except that it was
post-processed in the OHS palette
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Sh2-103 - The Veil Nebula
Again, the same image as the ones to the left. This one was post-processed
in the SHO palette. These three examples show how different an image can
turn out just by assigning the narrowband color channels in a creative way
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Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula or The Pillars of Creation (HOS)
Featured as one of the Hubble Space Telescope's most iconic images, the Pillars
of Creation are located in the constellation Serpens and lie about 5700
light-years away from us. The nebula itself is a diffuse emission nebula
which is undergoing active star formation. There is also an open cluster
right in the center that consists of about 8100 stars. This image was
processed in the HOS palette. The following images are processed with
different combinations in order to show how different details show up
using different filters
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Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula or The Pillars of Creation (OHS)
This image was processed in the OHS palette, and cropped to zoom in a bit
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- Location: IC Astronomy Observatory, Spain
- Date: June - July 2023
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED SPA-1
- Camera: FLI PL16083
- Exposure: 54x5 min OHS 4hrs 30min
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- Location: IC Astronomy Observatory, Spain
- Date: June - July 2023
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED SPA-1
- Camera: FLI PL16083
- Exposure: 54x5 min OHS 4hrs 30min
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: December 2022
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: FLI PL9000 @-25c CHI-1 CCD
- Exposure: 265x10 min OHS 40hrs 10min
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: December 2022
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: FLI PL9000 @-25c CHI-1 CCD
- Exposure: 265x10 min OHS 40hrs 10min
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Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula or The Pillars of Creation (SHO)
This image was processed in the SHO palette, and cropped to zoom in a bit
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NGC 2736 - The Pencil Nebula
This nebula is just a very small part of the larger Vela Nebula, which is a
supernova remnant. It is located in the constellation Vela. It sits about
815 light-years away from us and is thought to have been formed as a result
of the leading shock wave from the expanding supernova gas. It is moving
along at a comfortable 400,000 mph
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IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula
This reflection nebula is very, very faint and is believed to be the
leftovers of an ancient supernova remnant. It sits about 900 light-years
away. Although the nebula itself is in the constellation Eridanus, it is
illuminated by its neighboring star, Rigel, in the constellation Orion
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Cederblad 90
Also known as Sh2-297, this is an emission nebula at the tip of the Seagull
Nebula in Canis Major. It has, deeply embedded, a very active star-forming area,
as well as numerous established variable stars
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: December 2022
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: FLI PL9000 @-25c CHI-1 CCD
- Exposure: 265x10 min OHS 40hrs 10min
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: December 2022
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: FLI PL9000 @-25c CHI-1 CCD
- Exposure: 75x5 min RGB+Ha 6hrs 15min
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- Location: Blue Canyon Airport, CA
- Date: December 2025
- Mount: Unknown
- Telescope: Skywatcher FL = 385
- Camera: QHY600m CMOS @-25c
- Exposure: Unknown LRGB
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: January 2020
- Mount: ASA Alt-Az Direct Drive
- Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4
- Camera: FLI PL16803 @-25c
- Exposure: 10x3 min LRGB 30min
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Sh2-297
This object is an emission nebula that sits in the constellation
Canis Major. It is actually the bright area in the center, and is part
of the larger nebula Sh2-296 (The Seagull Nebula). It is about 4000 light-years
away from us
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IC 2087
Sitting about 430 light-years away is IC 2087, a small reflection nebula.
It is near the center of the extremely large Taurus Molecular Cloud Complex
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Barnard 150 (b150)
This is a dark nebula located in the constellation Cepheus. Cepheus was the
King of Aethiopia, husband of Queen Cassiopeia, and father of Andromeda.
It is about 1200 light-years away from us. Although this is a dark nebula,
star-forming regions have still been found inside the nebula
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NGC 7023 - The Iris Nebula
Out in the constellation Cepheus, about 1300 light-years away, lies the
Iris Nebula. It is a bright reflection nebula about 6 light-years wide.
There is an open cluster embedded in the middle of the nebula designated
NGC 7023. The nebula itself is also listed as LBN 487 (Lynds’ Bright
Nebulae Catalog)
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: November 2023
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000
- Telescope: Planewave CDK24 f/6.6
- Camera: QHY600m @-25c CHI-1
- Exposure: 167x5 min LRGB 13hrs 55min
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- Location: Spain
- Date: December 9, 2023
- Mount: Unknown
- Telescope: ZWO ASI 2600mm Pro T-16
- Camera: ZWO ASI 2600mm
- Exposure: 220x10 min LRGB 24hrs 20min
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- Location: El Sauce Observatory, Chile
- Date: April - May 2022
- Mount: ASA Alt-Az Direct Drive
- Telescope: ASA RC-1000AZ CHI-3
- Camera: FLI PL16803 @-25c
- Exposure: 64x10 min LRGB 10hrs 40min
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- Location: IC Astronomy Obs, Spain
- Date: March - April 2022
- Mount: OS EQ
- Telescope: Officina Stellare ProRC 700
- Camera: FLI PL16803 @-25c SPA-2 CCD
- Exposure: 16x10 min LRGB 2hrs 40min
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