NGC 3359: Thor’s Helmet

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The Dolphin Head Nebula, Sh2-308 // TRE

Cosmic Silver Lining NGC 2313 © Hubble

Infrared Cluster

SPACEMAS DAY 1 ✨🪐🌎☄️☀️🌕

What a better way to start than with one of the faves!!

Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is around 1,500 light-years away, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex and is sculpted by stellar winds and radiation. About 5 light-years "tall," the dark interstellar cloud, is cataloged as Barnard 33, is a star forming region. It is visible only because its dust is silhouetted against the glowing red emission nebula IC 434. To the lower left of the image there is a contrasting blue reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star. The featured gorgeous color image combines both narrowband and broadband images recorded using several different telescopes.

Image Credit: Mark Hanson & Martin Pugh, SSRO, PROMPT, CTIO, NSF

• Photograph of the emission nebula, Eta Carina (12 hour exposure)

Date: 1909

Place of origin: Cape Town

Hot Stars in the Trifid Nebula - December 21st, 1995.

"In the center of the glowing red gas in the Trifid Nebula lies an open cluster of young hot stars. The energetic light from these stars strikes hydrogen atoms in the surrounding nebula, causing them to lose their electrons. When an electron finds its way back to a hydrogen proton, it emits light at very specific colours - one of which is the red colour of the nebula seen here. The red glow is thus indicative of an emission nebula. The dramatic dark sheets are made of interstellar dust grains, tiny needle shaped pellets which are thought to be created and expelled in the atmospheres of cooler stars."

February 13, 2024

The Heart Nebula is a beautiful emission nebula located 7,500 light-years away from us. Happy Valentines Eve!

An aurochs painted in the heavens. This nebula was based loosely on NGC 2170.

This is the Lagoon Nebula! 💗💗💗

The beautiful lagoon shaped portion is created from aggressive stellar winds pushing the nebulae’s gas and dust aside. Many of the stars here are young, hot O-type stars that are more than 200,000 times brighter than the Sun! ✨✨✨

Taken by me (Michelle Park) using the Slooh Canary Two telescope on July 23rd, 2022 at 22:31 UTC. 

NGC 2359 or Thor’s Helmet captured by Nick Fritz

The Flying Dragon Nebula, Sh2-114 // Peter Horstink

Two-color composite of the Crescent Nebula (C27, Sh2-105)

H-alpha 5x300s (red)

O-III 5x300s (green+blue)

Taken from Bortle 6 skies in Boston, MA

Bright New Stars

SPACEMAS DAY 13 ✨🪐🌎☄️☀️🌕

The large emission nebula on the left of the image is catalogued as IC 1805 and looks somewhat like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element, hydrogen, but this long-exposure image was also blended with light emitted by silicon (yellow) and oxygen (blue). In the center of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their energetic light and winds. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. At the bottom right of the Heart Nebula is the Fishhead Nebula.

Image Credit & Copyright: William Ostling, Telescope Live