Ian Donaldson

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Looking up to the stars
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The Great Orion Nebula. This Emission Nebula & Cluster is also known as Messier 42. It is 1,500 light-years from Earth. The bright area is where thousands of stars are being born.
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The Great Orion Nebula. This Emission Nebula & Cluster is also known as Messier 42. It is 1,500 light-years from Earth. The bright area is where thousands of stars are being born.

  • My New Observatory! 11 inch Celestron CPC DeluxeHD Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, f/10, 2800mm 3.6 inch Williams Optics APO refactor telescope, f/7.1, 550mm (for viewing the sun, moon planets and autoguiding) Celestron Pro Wedge (to track the rotation of the earth) Celestron Autoguider (to keep the telescope lined up on an individual star) ADM rail and counter-weight. JMI focuser Teleview Everbrite diagonal
  • The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light-years from the Earth. In the sky of Earth, it spans 90' by 40', which translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. Like many nebulas, it appears pink in time-exposure color photos but is gray to the eye peering through binoculars or a telescope, human vision having poor color sensitivity at low light levels. The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material), the most prominent of which have been catalogued by E. E. Barnard as B88, B89 and B296. It also includes a funnel-like or tornado-like structure caused by a hot O-type star that emanates ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula. The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (so named by John Herschel), which should not be confused with the better known Hourglass Nebula in the constellation of Musca. In 2006 the first four Herbig–Haro objects were detected within the Hourglass, also including HH 870. This provides the first direct evidence of active star formation by accretion within it.[2]
  • The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is an H II region located in Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764.[3] Its name means 'divided into three lobes'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars; an emission nebula (the lower, red portion), a reflection nebula (the upper, blue portion) and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' within the emission nebula that cause the trifurcated appearance; these are also designated Barnard 85). Viewed through a small telescope, the Trifid Nebula is a bright and peculiar object, and is thus a perennial favorite of amateur astronomers.[4] The Trifid Nebula is a star-forming region in the Scutum spiral arm of the Milky Way.[5] The most massive star that has formed in this region is HD 164492A, an O7.5III star with a mass more than 20 times the mass of the Sun.[6] This star is surrounded by a cluster of approximately 3100 young stars.[7]
  • Do you see the swan? The Swan Nebula also known as The Omega Nebula is between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years from Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of interstellar matter of which this nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses.[3] The total mass of the Omega Nebula is an estimated 800 solar masses.[4] It is considered one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy.[3] Its local geometry is similar to the Orion Nebula except that it is viewed edge-on rather than face-on.
  • The Andromeda Galaxy (/ænˈdrɒmᵻdə/), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years) from Earth.[4] It is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and was often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. It received its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda.
  • The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The remarkable shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico.
  • The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula and The Spire) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745–46. Both the "Eagle" and the "Star Queen" refer to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the center of the nebula,[2][3] an area made famous as the "Pillars of Creation" photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the Pillars of Creation.
  • We had a nice Aurora at the Carr Astronomical Observatory last night! Canon 5D, Canon 24mm f/1.4 lens at f/5.0, 30seconds
  • The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103), a large but relatively faint supernova remnant. The source supernova exploded circa 3,000 BC to 6,000 BC, and the remnants have since expanded to cover an area roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, or 36 times the area, of the full moon). The distance to the nebula is not precisely known, but Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) data supports a distance of about 1,470 light-years.[2]
  • Sunspot AR2571 (near the middle) is growing, but it does not yet pose a threat for strong solar flares. Taken today at 2:00pm from my observatory. Williams Optics 545mm, f/7.0 Telescope Kendrick Solar filter Canon 7D ISO 100 1/200 second exposure
  • Partial Solar Eclipse on Oct. 23/13<br /> Taken at the Carr Astronomical Observatory near Thornbury Ontario.<br /> The marks are sunspots.
  • Milky Way.
  • Airliner In Front of The Full Moon. This image was featured in the Toronto Contact Exhibition.
  • 1 Hour Exposure at Carr Astronomical Observatory
  • 2 Galaxies near the Big Dipper. Spiral Galaxy, Messier 81 (at the top ) is 4,500,000 light-years away. Messier 82 (at the bottom) is an Irregular Galaxy that is 17,000,000 light-years distant.
  • M27. The Dumbbell Planetary Nebula. 815 LY. It was caused when a blue dwarf star exploded 48,000 years ago & is now 1.2 LY in diameter
  • Messier 101 is a beautiful Spiral Galaxy near the Big Dipper. It's 17,000,000 light years away
  • The Great Orion Nebula. This Emission Nebula & Cluster is also known as Messier 42. It is 1,500 light-years from Earth. The bright area is where thousands of stars are being born.
  • North side of the moon
  • 30 minute star trails over my backyard observatory.
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