Widefield of Cat’s Paw and Lobster nebula

Widefield of Cat’s Paw and Lobster nebula

This beautiful wide field of view of Scorpion’s tail contains the famous cat’s paw and lobster nebula’s along with the ‘prawn’ nebula at the bottom. Near the Prawn nebula you see the ‘northern jewel box’ star cluster, or NGC 6231. I especially love the way the dust clouds on the right side of the image almost seem to be slowly moving as if they are colorations within a liquid. Image acquisition details Date: July 12,…

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The Pipe Nebula with the Sagittarius triplet; Lagoon, Trifid and IC1274

The Pipe Nebula with the Sagittarius triplet; Lagoon, Trifid and IC1274

The Pipe nebula, also known as Barnard 59, 65–67, and 78, is a huge dark cloud in the constellation of Ophiuchus, near the center part of the Milky Way. This area contains a lot of dark clouds and you can also see the much smaller Snake Nebula to the right of the Pipe nebula.  You can see the Pipe nebula really ‘popping out’ of the Milky Way when you watch it with the naked eye…

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Centaurus A with Nikon D7000

Centaurus A with Nikon D7000

As the 5th brightest galaxy in our skies, Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is a very popular target both visually as for astrophotography. The galaxy looks like a lenticular or elliptical (yes, there still seems to be debate about this) galaxy with a very distinct disturbed dust lane across. It’s a clear example of a ‘disturbed’ galaxy, one that is the result of two smaller galaxies merging in the past. When processing the image I noticed…

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The Small Magellanic Cloud and Tuc 47

The Small Magellanic Cloud and Tuc 47

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way at a distance of around 200,000 light-years. Together with the LMC it can be clearly seen with the naked eye. The SMC is visually accompanied by 2 globular clusters. The biggest one is called Tuc47 and it is located 16,700 light years from us. It is in fact the second brightest globular cluster in the sky (after Omega Centauri). Unfortunately I only…

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A window into the Milky Way; wide field image of Sagittarius

A window into the Milky Way; wide field image of Sagittarius

Update: This image was Image of the Day on 8-8-2015 on Astrobin.com The Sagittarius part of the Milky Way is a very interesting and beautiful area. You can find the Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) nebulas here, as well as the Eagle (M16) and Omega nebulas (M17). But perhaps even more interesting is the Sagittarius Star Cloud, or M24. This is a gap in the dust of Sagittarius and you look right through into the…

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Southern Cross and Coalsack nebula

Southern Cross and Coalsack nebula

The Southern Cross and Coalsack nebula were very prominently present in the Southern sky, and I miss the sight of them already! Every evening I would point the scope to Alpha Crux in the Southern Cross as the reference star to align the mount. Alpha Crux is a double star, so it is extra convenient to be sure you are aligning on the right star. The Coalsack nebula is the clearest dark nebula in the…

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