Space Station Threshold

What you're looking at isn't a Hubble Deep Field image peering into the furthest reaches of space. What you're seeing is a galaxy field photographed with a 12.5" telescope located right here on planet Earth aimed 2 degrees east of Algol. It's a challenging galaxy cluster in Perseus known as Abell 426… [...]

Just one glance at this incredible visage is enough to make you do a double take. This intricate net of nebular mists is known as 30 Doradus, or even more commonly as the "Tarantula", but no space spider created this web. No, sir. What spun out these gossamer strands of HII silk [...]

If you live in the northern hemisphere, I'm sure you've very much noticed the daylight hours have become much shorter - but have you noticed the return of the winter stars during the early morning hours? If you're up before dawn the constellation of Orion sits high in the sky and with it brings [...]

Our first glimpse into the intricacies of Centaurus A was the big picture. We soon found out that not only was the first photograph a deep study, but the study of NGC 5128 was going to go deeper as well. One of the most obvious of all features is the central dust lane [...]

Before you dismiss this as just another photo of Centaurus A, you better look again. It's way deeper… First discovered by James Dunlop on August 4, 1826 this incredible galaxy known as Centaurus A (NGC 5128) has been tickling the imagination of astronomers since John Herschel described it as "two semi-ovals of elliptically [...]

There are wonderful tales which surround the circumpolar constellation of Draco. According to Greek legend, Draco represents the dragon killed by Cadmus before founding the city of Thebes - or perhaps it represented the dragon which guarded the golden fleece and was eventually killed by Jason and his famous Argonauts. To the Romans, [...]

As the very last of the summer flowers bloom in the dusty grasses of the northern hemisphere, so a cosmic flower blooms in the dusty star fields of the northern constellations. While this image conjures up a vision of an iris delicately opening its 6 light year wide petals some 1300 light years [...]

If you read this week's SkyWatcher's Forecast, then you knew several areas of the world were in for a partial lunar eclipse event. While the Moon basically just did a glancing pass through the umbral shadow, the effect was still dramatic and I was hoping that at least one photographer out there would have [...]

Summertime conjurs up great images of enjoying a double dip ice cream cone, and what more wonderful way to enjoy than with two flavors? Would you like to have some fun while the Moon waxes this coming week? Then invite someone along for the ride and let's take a look at how differently people [...]

Out in the deep reaches of space, a cocoon has formed. Here on Earth, a cocoon represents the casing of a pupae - the child/insect which is about to undergo a magnificent transformation into a beautiful moth or butterfly. So what does the cosmic cocoon, IC 5146, hide inside? Let's take a [...]