Current Photo Gallery of Nebula

Helix Nebula is only 450 light years from us. This was taken with RC 12.5", STL 11000 using Narrow-Band filters. A total of 4.5 hours, 1.5 hours each of H@ mapped to green, OIII mapped to Red, and SII mapped to blue. All were Astrodom filters process with CCDStack and PS. Dec. 4th, 2007

Same as first one, but mapped the channels differently. H@ to Red, OIII to Blue, & SII to Green.

This was taken with Eplison 210 and STL11000. Five 80 Sec. exposures with 50 sec. between exposures on Nov. 11th, at 2:00 A.M. It shows excess fuel and oxidizer will be vented from the Centaur. A US Air Force Satellite that was put up. Makes a nice contrast with the Running Man and M42.

The Horse Head nebula which is part of the Orian Nebula. It is a dark nebula back-lite from the OIII stars.

Taken with RC12.5", STL 11000, Astrondon filters. 1 hour of L frame, and 15 min. each of RGB. Process with PS and MaximDL.

Lying in the western part of Cepheus, this beautiful object is a fairly unusual pure reflection nebula, caused by light from the central magnitude 7 star, SAO 19158, being reflected off the abundance of dust particles left over from when the star was formed. NGC 7023 is really a misnomer since it refers to the open cluster visible in this image immediately to the west of the nebulous region. The correct designation for the nebula itself is LBN 487.

Taken with Eplison 210 and ST8 and Astrodon filters Oct. 2007. 60 min. of L, 15 min. each of RGB. The image shows a fine web of filamentary "bicycle-spoke" features embedded in the colorful red and blue ring of gas. At 650 light-years away, the Helix is one of the nearest planetary nebulae to Earth. A planetary nebula is the glowing gas around a dying, Sun-like star.

Taken with Eplison 210 Oct. 2007 with STL 11000, and Astrodon filters. One hour of L frame and 15 min of RGB.

This large emmision nebula (40'x145') is located in the southern part of the constellation of Perseus. The red light of the nebula is primarily Hα (Hydrogen Alpha). With a wavelength of 656.3 nm this light originates from Hydrogen atoms, where an exited electron from the atom falls back to a lower energy level and releases the difference in energy as a photon with this wavelength

The Bridal Veil nebula is a large, complex nebula that spans over 3^{o. The expelled remnants of a long ago supernova, it can be seen strewn all about the region on long exposure photos, but it is the two brightest parts that are typically seen visually. The brighter, eastern portion can be seen in binoculars from a dark site as a long curving hazy streak of light. Experienced observers under truly dark skies may be able to detect the western portion as well.}

This stellar swarm is only about 5.5 million years old (according to the Sky Catalog 2000 and Götz) with star formation still active in the Eagle Nebula; this results in the presence of very hot young stars of spectral type O6. The cluster was classified as of Trumpler type II,3,m,n (Götz). The brightest star of M16 is of visual magnitude 8.24. At its distance of 7,000 light years, its angular diameter of 7 arc minutes corresponds to a linear extension of about 15 light years. The nebula extends much farther out, to a diameter of over 30', corresponding to a linear size of about 70x55 light years

It's the bubble versus the cloud. NGC 7635, the Bubble, is being pushed out by the stellar winds of massive central star BD+602522. Next door, though, lives a giant cloud, visible above to the upper left. At this place in space, an irresistable force meets an immovable object in an interesting way. The cloud is able to contain the expansion of the bubble gas, but gets blasted by the hot radiation from the bubble's central star.

NGC 6888 (the Crescent Nebula or Caldwell 27) is an emission nebula in the Cygnus constillation, about 5000 light-years away. It is formed by the fast stella winds from the Wold-Rayet star (or WR-136) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 400,000 years ago.

This CCD image shows only a small part of a vast complex of gas, dust, and newly forming stars. The bright background is a part of bright nebula IC 434 and is both emission (mostly glowing hydrogen and oxygen) and reflection nebula. The "Horse Head" is a cloud of dark dust that is blocking light from the gas and stars behind it. There are new stars forming in this nebula. The Horse Head is in the constellation of Orion near the eastern belt star. The Horse Head was discovered on photographs in the late 19th century. While E. Barnard did not discover this object, he was the first to recognize that it was a vast dark cloud blocking the light coming from behind it. He included it in his catalog of dark nebulae as B-33

The color of the Omega Nebula is reddish, with some graduation to pink. This color comes from the hot hydrogene gas which is excited to shine by the hottest stars which have just formed within the nebula. However, the brightest region is actually of white color, not overexposed as one might think. This phenomenon is apparently a result of a mixture of emission light from the hottest gas, together with reflections of the bright star light from the dust in this region

The Pelican Nebula, also known as IC 5070, lies about 2,000 light-years away in the high and far-off constellation of Cygnus the Swan. This picture spans a portion of the magnificent nebula about 30 light-years wide. Fittingly, this cosmic pelican is found just off the east "coast" of the North American Nebula.

M42 the Great Orion Nebula. Taken Nov. 10th 2007 with E210 and STL11000, LRGB through Astrodon filters. A total of 2 hours of RGB.