The Cocoon Nebula is a rare kind of phenomenon, as we will see below. Emission nebulae are often related to sites of massive star formation in the Milky Way. They appear in various forms, like the turbulent gas flows of the Orion Nebula, or the phenomenal Elephant’s Trunk Nebula with its bright-rimmed dark clouds. Dust …
How does it look like, the birth of stars? Are they easy to spot? Or are they hiding somewhere? Hot stars (like Menkib) can produce massive regions of glowing gas known as emission nebulae. Often these are sites of massive star formation, like in the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula or the Orion Nebula. They emit light …
So why do we need mosaic imaging sometimes? You always dreamed about a bigger telescope, right? But there are some beauties that just do not fit in the field of view with a big telescope. Even with a rather short focal length of 384mm with our small astro-camera, we cannot frame objects greater than about …
The COVID-19 curfew in the Netherlands made the winter of 2020-2021 especially long. Not only you were working at the home office for months, but all the shops (besides supermarkets, groceries, and pharmacies) were closed as well. During the evening you were not supposed to leave your own house unless you were letting a house …
Small telescope astrophotography, from a town with light pollution? Here we show you how we captured the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) from our hometown. Emission nebulae are easy because they are large, and they show a large contrast with respect to the sky background when observed using special nebula filters as we did for the Rosette …
Small telescope astrophotography: the Pinwheel Galaxy Lees meer »
How to set up the William Optics GT81 (or similar telescopes) on an iOptron CEM40 mount for astrophotography with ASIair Pro by ZWO? This post is mainly for ourselves, but maybe it is useful for other beginner astrophotographers, too. It describes the workflow with our equipment, with some (hopefully) useful advice. Preparations – Have …
The brightest star of the Leo constellation is alpha Leonis. Today it is known as Regulus, but it had a variety of names in different cultures. And most astrophysicists do not know that it is a star system known by amateurs astronomers as ‘Regulus, the pendulum’. Why? Let’s find out! This star and its location …
The night skies have become barely accessible due to increasing light pollution. Satellite mega-constellations may eradicate it forever. Each year in April, the week of the new moon is celebrated as the International Dark Sky Week. So let’s talk about our access to dark, starry skies. While our region is generally considered as one of …
Dust in space is abundant at places of star formation like the Horsehead Nebula – which is one of the most photographed celestial objects. It is part of a star formation complex together with the Orion Nebula, but it forms fewer stars and the actual processes are hidden from our eyes by dust in the …
Some like it hot! The most massive stars have very high surface temperatures, and they can even make the surrounding interstellar gas glow. Stars can be classified by their brightness and color (an astronomer would say: spectral type). Brightness and color is related to other physical parameters like mass, size, and surface temperature, and one …