Astrophotography Gallery

The Running Man Nebula is in the constellation Orion, and very close to the Orion Nebula. The nebula is about 1600 light years from Earth, so the image depicted here is from light that was emitted around 400 AD. The Running Man Nebula was first observed by William Herschel in 1786. The nebula has been described as a man or ghost running through the sky. The Running Man Nebula is a reflection nebula. The bright blue glow is caused by light from nearby bright stars reflecting off a dense cloud of dust and gases.

Virgo Aug 23 - Sep 22. The elliptical Sombrero Galaxy is an amazing 31 million light years from us in the constellation Virgo. The galaxy has an unusually large central bulge and very prominent dust ring, giving it the appearance of a sombrero. The central bulge contains a supermassive black hole. The mass of the black hole is estimated to be 1 billion times the mass of our sun. A photograph of the Sombrero galaxy is found in the end credits of the TV series The Outer Limits.