The Planet Jupiter
Now for something completely different! Normally I spend my time observing “faint fuzzies” as amateur astronomers call dim distant objects. But today I decided to share some images of the planet Jupiter, its Great Red Spot and its equatorial belts that I made on Labor Day weekend.
The Dumbbell Nebula
The Dumbbell Nebula M27 (also known as Apple Core Nebula) is a typical planetary nebula about 1300 light-years from us. It was the first such object to be discovered – by Charles Messier in 1764.
The Trifid Nebula
The Trifid Nebula, M20, is a beautiful gaseous cloud within which new stars are being born. It is one of several spectacular telescopic sights embedded in the summertime Milky Way.
The M61 Supernova - postmortem
Last look at Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE
This is a follow-up to my July 29 post. Comet NEOWISE has faded rapidly in the last eight days as it continues to move away from the sun and the earth.
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE
Now rapidly moving away from both the sun and the earth, Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) was only discovered on March 27 and turned out to be the brightest comet visible from the northern hemisphere since Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997. A week ago it was easily visible to the naked eye, but it has dimmed greatly since then.
The Lagoon Nebula
The Lagoon Nebula, M8, is another remarkable region where new stars are being formed. It is a giant glowing cloud of interstellar gas lit up by nearby stars. It is divided by a dark lane of dust and it also contains an embedded cluster NGC 6530 whose stars have been newly formed from the nebular material.
The Eagle Nebula
M16, the Eagle Nebula, is one of several spectacular objects now coming into view in the summer evening sky. It has been made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope “Pillars of Creation” photograph - easily the most ubiquitous of all Hubble images.
Changes and Improvements
I’d like to call your attention to some changes and improvements to this blog in the past week or so as I try to make the site more enjoyable to browse.
The Pleiades
The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, are an open star cluster containing hot middle-aged stars in the constellation Taurus. It is among the star clusters nearest to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. Most people can see the 6 or 7 brightest stars that form a smallish “dipper” – NOT to be confused with the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor constellation).