The Herschel 400 Astronomical League Project is underway
It’s not too late to join. We are about 30 objects into the Herschel 400. Hope to get another session in soon. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel so you get notifications on LIVE STREAMS.
Angels in Monoceros: The Monoceros M2 Complex
The Monoceros R2 molecular complex (often shortened to Mon R2) is a massive giant molecular cloud and one of the nearest active star-forming regions to Earth. It's a dynamic stellar nursery embedded in dense gas and dust, where new stars—particularly massive ones—are actively being born.
Key Facts
Location: Southwestern part of the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn), near the border with Orion. It's part of the larger Orion-Monoceros cloud complex.
Distance: Approximately 2,400–2,700 light-years (around 830 parsecs).
Size and Structure: The main dense core is relatively compact (a few light-years across), but the overall molecular cloud and associated nebulae span a wide area—reflection nebulae alone stretch up to about 2° in the sky. It's situated well below the galactic plane, which makes it stand out in certain observations.
Age and Activity: Star formation here began roughly 6–10 million years ago. It hosts an OB association (young, hot, massive B- and A-type stars) that illuminates surrounding dust, creating prominent reflection nebulae with bluish hues. There's also significant emission from ionized gas (red glows) and dark nebulae that appear as shadowy silhouettes blocking background light.
Notable Features:
A central hub of massive star formation with embedded clusters, molecular outflows, and HII regions.
Infrared observations (like those from VISTA or 2MASS) penetrate the dust to reveal hidden young stars and protoplanetary disks.
It's a key site for studying early stellar evolution, variability in young stellar objects (YSOs), and the interplay between massive stars and their natal clouds.
The most famous and photogenic part of Mon R2 is the region around NGC 2170 (the Angel Nebula), a striking reflection nebula with wing-like dust structures, glowing blue from scattered starlight, mixed with red emission and dark lanes. Wider views of the complex reveal a richer tapestry of colorful gas, dust filaments, and star clusters.
Credit: GROK 2/28/26
Click on image for larger view.
New Astro Camera: OM-3
Join me for a LIVE conversation about this new astro camera coming to the market. Is this the best option for you? How does it compare to other options? https://www.earthandskyphoto.com Correction: when discussing Bulb mode with Canon, I incorrectly said it had a limit of 30”. I meant to say manual exposure has a max of 30”. In bulb, you need to use a remote control or app for exposure time control. The problem is you can’t set exposure time for stills in the camera menu. I was made aware that Olympus no longer owns the OM system. It is owned by Japanese industrial Partners, a private equity firm. For content on the OM-3 for astrophotography, please see Ben Chapell’s Narrow Band channel. https://youtube.com/@TheNarrowbandChannel?si=GcWY-BM9skG9LPhY
Oak Tree-Revisiting the image
While I enjoyed the "unreal" presentation of the original "Oak Tree Canopy", there were two items that continually gnawed at me. One was that the midtones were just too MIDTONED! So I applied another curve to the image to raise the mid and upper tones a bit on the scale. The second bother was that the image looked too "squatty." It simply looked compressed. So I elongated the image with the transform tool in PS and I like the aspect ratio much better now. Since I make no bones about manipulating images, this image is certainly no attempt at representing "reality." I will address the reality of photography off and on in this blog, but as you may have guessed, the camera is certainly not a truth-teller. I hope you enjoy the discussion of the revisit and have a great day.
Oak Tree Canopy - An Unreal Vision
In the field I try my best to just respond to interesting light that catches my eye. Sometimes it may be the brilliant color that is being revealed while at other times it may be textures and the play of the light on the subject. In this particular case, I believe it was both, but my first interpretation led to a black and white presentation and minimizing the impact of "color" in the image.
Technically, this is a bit different in that it is a vertical panorama of two images taken with the 90mm tilt/shift lens on the Canon 5D MarkII. The tilt/shift permits me to simply shift the lens from top to bottom to increase the field of view and minimize field distortions as a result of changing the angle of the camera. This was also my first real outing with the 5DMKII and I must say it performed very well.
I do encourage you to click on the image to see a larger presentation. Viewing the image on a full screen, it certainly strikes me as something "unreal", but yet this interpretation does exactly what I want it to do in presenting the texture of the complex canopy of branches and hanging moss with the dappled light of mid-morning. To contrast this presentation, I hope to soon be posting a color interpretation so that we can perhaps compare the "real" and "unreal" interpretations afforded by the same image.
I do love the old oaks of the south with their hanging moss scattering light amongst their branches. To me the oaks really shine with the sun providing a mostly backlit situation, which can be technically challenging from a dynamic range standpoint. There are other images still "stewing" in the Light Room "pot" so please check back for more presentations and interpretations and a discussion of the approaches to each individual image.
Bryce Canyon
There are images and compositions that bug you until you finally decide to develop them for presentation. This image is one of those that has haunted me for the past year. It is also representative of where my photographic style is going. I will have more on my next photographic project, but for now, this is one of my favorite images from a hike within Bryce Canyon taken last November. I hope you enjoy it.
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