Astrophotography Gallery

The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most recognizable nebulae in the sky. Located in Orion’s Belt, the nebula is about 1600 light years from Earth. The Horsehead nebula was first photographed by Williamina Paton Fleming at Harvard in 1919. The bright star to the left of the horsehead is Alnitak, the leftmost star in Orion’s Belt. The Flame Nebula is in lower left, and the blue patch between these two nebulae is NGC 2023, a reflection nebula. A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust and gases such as hydrogen and oxygen. Interstellar dust and gases are pulled together to form the cloud we see. As these clouds condense, new stars can be formed. The red color we see in this photo is due to ionized hydrogen gas. The gases are ionized by the energy of nearby stars.

Pisces - Feb 19 - Mar 20. The spiral Pinwheel Galaxy is between 20 and 27 million light years from us in the constellation Pisces. That means that the light we see was emitted over 20 million years ago and took that long (at the speed of light!) to travel to Earth. The Pinwheel Galaxy is a cluster of around a trillion stars held together by gravity. It’s a spiral galaxy with a central bulge of stars and arms of stars, dust and gases. The entire galaxy is rotating together. Hotter stars appear white or blue, while cooler stars appear red or brown.