Fine Astrophotography from Europe
The Pelican Nebula is part of the allegedly most famous nebula complex of the skies: the North America Nebula. Situated right next to it, the image shows the Pelican and the western part of North America. This picture is the first light of my new Celestron 11 EdgeHD Hyperstar. Imaging at F2, the total integration time was 1 hour only.
NGC 206 ist a giant star cluster located not in our Milkyway but rather in M 31, the Andromeda Nebula. The Andromeda Nebula itself is said to be similar in size and kind to the Milkyway, our own galaxy, but is some 2.2 million lightyears away from Earth. The light collected for this image has thus been emitted long time before human life evolved.
The Little Dumbbell Nebula (M 76) is certainly one of the best known objects in the autumn skies. The central bar is bright enough to be easily seen through mid-sized telescopes even under lightened skies. The central star is a close (optical) double-star with a distance of only about 1.4 arcsecs, although in fact the fainter component is really behind the nebula, so this pair is not a physical double-star.
Among the most prominent galaxies in the autumn skies is NGC 7331, a magnificent spiral galaxy at a distance of about 50 million lightyears. Easily visible through mid-sized telescopes is only the bright core while the spiral arms require long-exposed photographs. The arms extend to about 100,000 lightyears hence this galaxy being about the size of our Milkyway.
UGC galaxies are often tiny and not exactly spectacular. This one is different: The pair of UGC 1810/13, also known as Arp 273, is a masterpiece of art: Prominent spiral arms reveal plenty of detail which can also be distinguished by its colour. Make sure to view the highest resolution.
NGC 891 may be the most ideal edge-on galaxy on the northern hemisphere. Looking at the galaxy’s disc from the side, the center dust lane is most prominent. In vicinity to this striking object, there are plenty of background galaxies some of the revealing extraordinary shapes, such as PGC 9101 at the lower left edge of the image.
IC 1340 is the southern end of the eastern part of the Cirrus Nebula NGC 6992/6995. Actually, IC 1340 refers to the small condensation on the top left reminding of waves in the interstellar medium. In this picture, south is up, east to the right.
NGC 5371 is situated in the constellation of Canes Venatici half way towards Bootes. It is about 110 million lightyears in distance from Earth and its diameter is said to be about 130,000 lightyears. Hence, this face-on barred spiral galaxy is about 1/3 larger in diameter than our Milkyway.
NGC 6207 is a tiny galaxy next to the famous cluster M13 in the constellation of Hercules. It can be observed in the evening skies during May and June. It is about 46 million lightyears in distance from Earth.
For its famous shape, this almost edge-on galaxy is well known under the name „Sombrero Galaxy“. The shape is formed by dust lanes projected against the galaxy’s core. This Sa or Sb-type spiral galaxy is located appr. 30 million lightyears from Earth and has a diameter of appr. 50,000 lightyears.