Finally, a new object worth sharing: The Crescent Nebula is a faint, loop-shaped nebula forming a partial squashed circle.
With the short nights and hazy summer skies, this time of year is not very favorable for amateur astronomers and our telescopes. But we finally had a decent clear moonless night earlier this week and I took advantage of it to observe this faint object.
The Crescent Nebula (30 min total exposure Aug 6, 2021)
The Crescent Nebula (or NGC 6888) is about 4700 light years away from us. It is the result of a massive star that is near the end of its life and is losing mass at an incredibly high rate - equivalent to the mass of the Sun about every 10,000 years. That material is expanding and colliding with and energizing slower moving material that was previously ejected by the star when it became a red giant several hundred thousand years earlier.
The central star will probably undergo a supernova explosion sometime in the next million years.
(I have never seen anyone else say so, but the Crescent Nebula brings to my mind an impression of a jellyfish swimming through the starfield formed by the Milky Way stars shinging through it.)