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
Veil Nebula Mosaic from Spruce Knob, WV
There are so many great things about astrophotography, one of which is the never ending learning curve when it comes to processing image data. I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to process the 3 panel mosaic I captured over two nights at Spruce Knob summit. It had been a long time since I did 3 panels and I was learning a new processing program as well. So, I dove in and things came together much quicker than I expected. I am really finalizing my workflow from Pixinsight to Photoshop and may someday make a small presentation on that. But, in the meantime, this is one of my favorite areas of the sky.
The Veil Nebula Supernova remnant is also known as the Cygnus loop. Link to Wikipedia. To think this is the expanding remnant from a star 20 times bigger than our sun and happened over 8,000 years ago is stunning.
The complex covers a little wider part of the sky than this composition, but this was the best I could cover in two pristine nights on Spruce with my current gear.
For a complete technical list for this image, please see my astrobin page.
I hope you enjoy the image and can marvel at what it represents. Have a great day.
Click on image for larger presentation.
New Images from Spruce Knob and a Revisit
Hello friends and imagers.
My new image processing workflow is starting to yield results. I have processed and published much of the work captured from the summit of Spruce Knob in September. I still have some mosaic work to be done and many more sets of data to work up.
But for now, here are the images from Spruce Knob. You can click on each image for a larger presentation.
These are old standards of the night sky, but I wanted to capture data with the new equipment. The AP Stowaway and ZWO ASI 294 MC Pro did the lions share of the work. I did add some halpha data to the Andromeda Galaxy that was acquired right from my backyard.
The Great Andromeda Galaxy. Spruce Knob RGB data supplemented with Halpha from home.
Approximately 3 hours of data acquired from the summit of Spruce Knob for M45 The Pleiades Star Cluster.
M16 or Eagle Nebula is hard for me to access. It is behind the hill at my house, so I always have to travel to image this area. I did not get as much data as I wanted on this object as clouds rolled in. I hope to revisit in 2020.
I revisited some DSLR data taken a couple of years ago on the Astro-Physics 130 Gran Turismo with some recently acquired Halpha data on the Astro-Physics Stowaway.
Ultimate Portable Astrophotography Setup Part 2
We expand our search for the Ultimage Portable Photography Setup. Equipment reviewed is the William Optics Redcat 51 on the iOptron Skyguider Pro with multiple ZWO gear including the Air, 294 MC Pro camera, and 120 camera and scope. Please give it a view.
Badwater Milky Way
The setting Milky Way from the lowest point in North America. The night sky is remarkable at Badwater. The salt residue patterns adding a point of focus in the foreground. The town of Ridgecrest casts some light on the horizon, but that is the only light visible this location. Sitting in the middle of Badwater at night, taking in the beauty of the sky and hearing absolutely no sounds, created a tranquil environment for meditation and reflection. The Sony A7RIII was used with the Laowa 15mm f2 lens with 10 images of 10 seconds stacked to form a smooth Milky Way presentation.
Jeff's Blog
Join me on photography journeys from desert landscapes to deep sky wonders.
