Astrophotography Gallery

The Pacman Nebula is named for its resemblance to the famous video game character. Located in the constellation Cassiopeia, it is 10,000 light years from Earth and within our own Milky Way Galaxy. 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 are formed. The mouth of the Pacman is a cloud of dark gas and dust that obscures the glowing gases that form the nebula.

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.