Nikon D5100

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,…

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…

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…

The colorful cloud complex near Rho Ophiuchi

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…