Tag: Milky Way
A Northern Winter Sky Panorama
What stars shine in Earth’s northern hemisphere during winter? The featured image highlights a number of bright stars visible earlier this month. The image is a 360-degree horizontal-composite panorama of 66 vertical frames taken consecutively with the same camera and...
Decorating the Sky
Bright stars, clouds of dust and glowing nebulae decorate this cosmic scene, a skyscape just north of Orion’s belt. Close to the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the wide field view spans about 5.5 degrees. Striking bluish M78, a...
N63A: Supernova Remnant in Visible and X-ray
What has this supernova left behind? As little as 2,000 years ago, light from a massive stellar explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) first reached planet Earth. The LMC is a close galactic neighbor of our Milky Way Galaxy...
Geminid Meteors over Chile
Are meteors streaming out from a point in the sky? Yes, in a way. When the Earth crosses a stream of Sun-orbiting meteors, these meteors appear to come from the direction of the stream — with the directional point called...
Milky Way and Planets Near Opposition
In this early May night skyscape, a mountain road near Bursa, Turkey seems to lead toward bright planets Mars and Saturn and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, a direction nearly opposite the Sun in planet Earth’s sky. The...
Milky Way Over Quiver Tree Forest
In front of a famous background of stars and galaxies lies some of Earth’s more unusual trees. Known as quiver trees, they are actually succulentaloe plants that can grow to tree-like proportions. The quiver tree name is derived from the...
Saturn and Mars visit Milky Way Star Clouds
After recently getting a telescope for my birthday I’m awaiting a clear night in the UK to gaze upon Mars and Saturn late at night. While I’m not sure my entry level scope can gather such amazing images, I’m excited...
Milky Way over the Pinnacles in Australia
This was my favourite view growing up in Australia. It was a fair distance away from where this picture was taken in a small town called Darwin, but the view was equally as spectacular on a clear night sky when...
Galaxies in the River
Just like large animals grow by eating smaller ones on Earth, our Milky Way galaxy grows by eating other smaller galaxies in the area. This isn’t a local phenomenon either, it happens throughout the Universe like a desperate monopoly player...
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300
Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus. This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the largest Hubble images ever made...