Hi all,

Today’s image can be considered a “divertimento”. We all get to “guess” shapes in the clouds that we see in the sky. We also do this with the nebulae that we see in the night sky, and we have many examples of this (the Eagle, Pelican, Seagull, Rosette and many others). In many cultures, the gift of a rose is a token of love/respect/appreciation. As usual, this opens many question marks. This is exactly what seems to happen in this image that I came to call “The Rose and the Question Marks”.

You can find it at:

NGC 1966, the Rose and the Question Marks

Enjoy,
Josep

Hi all!

As a complement to the previous post regarding Messier 65, also M66 has been uploaded. This galaxy shows more distortion than M65, due to a gravitational encounter with NGC 3628. This fact has heavily affected both galaxies.

You can find this image at:

Messier 66. M66. NGC 3627

Enjoy!,

Josep

Hi all!

A new image, this time a well known galaxy, M65, has been uploaded. M65 is usually considered to be a dull galaxy, without much structure, but it is a fine spiral with a rare peculiarity in the spectrum of radio waves: its strongest signal does not come from the galaxy’s nucleus but off center. The reason for this is unknown yet.

You can find this image at:

Messier 65. NGC 3623

Enjoy,

Josep

 

Hi all,

 

An image of the Owl Nebula has been uploaded. This faint planetary has distinct emissions that can be grabbed with narrowband filters. Please, find this image at:

Messier 97. M97. NGC 3587. The Owl Nebula

Enjoy,

Josep

 

Hi all,

An image of NGC 1313, a galaxy with a high Southern Declination, has been uploaded. It is a galaxy that has been heavily distorted by its recent collision with another galaxy.

You can find it at:

NGC 1313. The Topsy-Turvy Galaxy

Enjoy,
Josep

Hi all,

Messier 82 is a very active galaxy and well known for being part of the “starburst galaxies” group. This galaxy is, moreover, one of the most beautiful in the whole Messier catalog.

You can find this recent image at:

Messier 82. NGC 3034

Enjoy,
Josep

Hi all,

A new image has been uploaded. This time, it is something different: an image of the Trapezium area taken with a 60-inch Ritchey-Chrétien f/8 atop Palomar Observatory (focal length 12 meters…). The image covers 10×10 arcmin and the data are very good. You will find it at:

Messier 42. The Trapezium

Enjoy,
Josep

Hi all,

A new image has been uploaded. This time it has something new. One of the reflection nebulae in the image had a very apparent red bubble-like nebula inside it, but it was (so far) unknown. The discovery has been reported and published as a Research Note. The image and its explanation can be found at:

NGC 6595, NGC 6589 and IC 1284

The Research Note at:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ab722c

Enjoy!
Josep

Hi all,

One of the top astrophotographers, Rolf Olsen, has taken a deeper image of IC 2220, which contains the new bubble-like nebula discovered by my daughter Anna and myself about two years ago. His image is great and shows a great deal of detail. He has, generously, allowed me to include it in this web site. You can find it at the bottom of the page:

IC 2220 AND ANNA’S NEBULA

And also at his web site:

Rolf Olsen Astrophotography

Thanks, Rolf. Enjoy,

Josep

 

Hi all,

This time, the image is a two panel mosaic of the Grus Quartet. This group of four spiral galaxies has two Seyfert galaxies each one with a supermassive (20 Million solar masses) black hole in its center. You can find it at:

The Grus Quartet. NGC 7582 and friends

Enjoy,

Josep