More Comet 17P Holmes...

This close-up image of the nucleus of comet 17P Holmes shows a bright coma region and the outer dust shell surrounding this unusual comet. It was taken with my large Schmidt-Newtonian scope. The dust shell has grown slightly in size since my first image shown below.

Comet Eruption!

Here is an image of comet 17P Holmes. This comet suddenly erupted from magnitude 17 to magnitude 2.5 over the last few days. It is now so bright it can be seen with the naked eye in a moonlit night. It has a very strange appearance because it is seen nearly head on to us, and the tail is not visible.

Dark Nebulae in Cygnus

This image shows a couple of unidentified dark nebulae in the constellation of Cygnus. The large clouds of gas obscure the stars behind them and appear as a dark spot or hole in the star field. They are simply a large dark cloud that the light cannot shine through or illuminate.

Double Cluster

The Double Cluster is a naked eye cluster located in the outskirts of the constellation Perseus. It is composed of two open star clusters appearing to be very near one another. It is considered to be one of the more spectacular objects to be seen visually, especially with a rich field telescope.

M27 Re-done...

While I was shooting the Helix, I decided to re-shoot the Dumbbell Nebula. Here it is in all its glory as imaged through my 10" scope using my DSI Pro and CMY filters.

Helix Nebula

This large planetary nebula is known as the Helix Nebula. It is very large (as big as the full moon), but is notoriously difficult to see without a very wide-field scope. It is so large, because it is the closest object of this type to the earth. It remains dim to our eyes, because the light is spread out over a larger area than the typical planetary nebula, in turn lowering the surface brightness. If it were farther away, the light would be more concentrated, and we would see it a bit easier.

This nebula is composed of gas and dust thrown off by a dying star. It is called the Helix because high detail images show two shells of gas resembling a vague helix shape. It is assumed the two shells were created by perturbations in the orbit of the star caused by an unseen companion.

I shot this image using my Canon 300D DSLR and my 10" Schmidt-Newtonian telescope.

Seven Sisters

The Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters as it is more commonly known form a very interesting star cluster in the fall night sky. It is a naked eye cluster composed of 7-9 bright blue stars, surrounded by a faint cloud of reflective dust. The whole affect is quite impressive in a wide field telescope or binoculars. It takes a scope of about 10" and a very dark night to even attempt to see the dust cloud surrounding these stars. It is captured fairly well in the above photo.