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
First Light at Star Party
Nothing like sharing first light with a new beautiful scope with cosmic adventurers young and old at a local star party. Last night at the Clark Planetarium in Portsmouth, OH, 120 folks attended planetarium shows and viewed the cosmos through a variety of scopes on the lawns of Shawnee State University.
Clouds were intermittent, but we did sneak in views of Venus and Saturn as well as a sunspot before the Sun set in the west. There is nothing like viewing Saturn through a telescope in real time. Most cannot believe they are actually seeing the rings as clearly as they are and then they begin to ask about the moons lining up along the edge of the ring pattern.
There were some common questions from last night that I didn't have answers to but now I do:
- What are we seeing? Most of the time this was in regards to sunspot #1084. You can view the latest solar images from this website at NASA.
- What is a sunspot? Here is further explanation over what I was giving at the scope last night.
- Last night we viewed Saturn and the rings are nearly edge on to us. So what is the cycle of the change in Saturn's rings? It is about a six year pattern where the rings open and close to our viewing angle. For a great presentation of this please see this link and image by Alan Friedman.
- What is that to the side of Saturn? That was probably the Saturn moon Rhea.
- If there is no rock material on the gas giants, why are they still globes? Even though they are made up of gas, there is still a huge amount of mass and thus a huge amount of gravity. Jupiter has as much mass as the entire solar system combined minus the Sun. For more information please see this link.
This night was first light for the Astro-Physics 130EDF and it certainly delivered. Wonderful contrasty views of Saturn were had in between clouds with the 3-6mm Televue eyepiece. I can't wait to put a camera on the eyepiece end of the scope and capture some great views of our cosmos. My first target is M16, the Eagle Nebula.
Special thanks to Arthur Bogard for his hard work on putting the star party together and I look forward to helping with the next one in September. There are three things that I believe everyone must see at least once:
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Milky Way from a dark sky site.
I hope you have the blessing of seeing these wonderful celestial sites in your lifetime.
Star Party Tomorrow Night
A wonderful opportunity for the entire family to take in fantastic planetarium shows as well as view the moon, planets, and deep sky objects will be at the Clarke Planetarium in Portsmouth, OH tomorrow night starting at 7 p.m. It will be first light for my AP 130 refractor and what a way to break it in by sharing views of the cosmos with folks young and old but with imaginative minds. If you live near the planetarium I hope you can join us for a fantastic evening.
I am awaiting a new power supply on my newly upgraded workstation so i may begin work on the most recent acquisitions from the Colorado Plateau. Should begin work this Thursday.
Digital files
Final digital tally is over 3400 digital files and 55 gb of data. I capture jpg and raw so about 1700 unique captures. A lot of captures for digital blending so I would average at least 8 captures for each composition and then I capture numerous compositions of the same scene. So I probably captured about 150 unique scenes with different compositions. The optimization work is now beginning.
Back from the West
Just returned from 8 days of fantastic light and photography on the Colorado plateau. Internet and AT&T wireless coverage was very sparse so I could not update the blog as I had wished. Now the work begins on optimizing the images. I don't want to say too much right now and just let the work speak for itself. Please stay tuned for much more in the coming days.
Going west
I forgot to post to the blog that I am heading west for photography in the southern Utah region. I may post some updates to the blog, but all updates will be posted to my facebook and Twitter pages. You can find links to those pages on the contact page. Sorry for not linking, but I am texting this from the iPhone and stopping briefly in dillon, co. Back on the road.
Jeff's Blog
Join me on photography journeys from desert landscapes to deep sky wonders.
