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Cederblad 51 • Fireworks Galaxy and the Seahorse Nebula • The Iris Nebula • Galaxy Messier 81 • Lunar eclipse • The Tadpole Nebula • Colourful Moon • The Witch Head Nebula • compiled by Mark Armstrong.
WIN
£50 for picture of the month
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Blue eye of the Blob
Fireworks in Cepheus
Nik Szymanek says…
There are many classes of deep-sky objects that make perfect targets for the modern astrophotographer. These include galaxies, in all their varied forms and inclinations, bright nebulae, globular clusters and dark nebulae. With something of a growing trend toward short focal length imaging with travel-friendly and high-quality refractors there will be many occasions where it is possible to capture multiple objects in the same frame.
This month’s winning entry, sent in by Pea Mauro and taken under dark mountain skies in Italy, captures two of the best objects in their respective categories in the same frame.
The main target is Barnard 150, more popularly known as the Seahorse Nebula and located in the constellation of Cepheus. It is a wonderful example of a dark nebula. Images show what looks to be dark, cloying dust blotting out themultitude of background stars. In reality this dust is extremely fine and of low density, but the huge size of the nebula means that the dust adds up to give the impression of thick, ominous clouds. In this case though, it gives a similarity to a gentle, comical seahorse floating in a sea of stars.
Not far from the tail of the seahorse is a lovely view of one of the best spiral galaxies in the night sky, NGC 6946, also known as the Fireworks Galaxy, nicknamed due to its propensity for producing a surprisingly large number of supernovae. Careful processing and a deep exposure set show both objects along with much fainter dust clouds across the frame, as well as nice colours in the field stars.
In reality, while both objects share a common path across the night sky, NGC 6946 lies at 25 million light years, making it more than 20,000 times more distant than the Seahorse.