Tagged: Nebula - Adam Lundie - Eatons Hill Observatory

When stars like the Sun are near end of life, they send their outer layers into space to create glowing clouds of gas, a planetary nebulae. This ejection of mass is uneven, and planetary nebulae can have complex shapes. This dying star is moving rapidly through space, resulting in a long tail of ionized hydrogen gas.

Perhaps too small of an object for amateur equipment to tease out any details, I decided to try my luck on the Little Gem Nebula. NGC 6818 is roughly 6000 light-years away from Earth. The glow of the cloud is just over half a light-year across.

Although categorised as a hydrogen emission nebula, Sh2-63 lacks the bright red colouring typical of similar objects.

The Red Spider Nebula (also catalogued as NGC 6537) is a planetary nebula located near the heart of the Milky Way.

NGC 2626 is a seldom photographed, spectacular reflection nebula in a sea of hydrogen emission clouds.

The Butterfly Cluster, Messier 6, is an open cluster of hot blue stars with the brightest member being an orange giant star. Behind the cluster is the orange light of the Milky Way, and a beautiful cloud of excited Hydrogen alpha gas.

IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape) is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in the constellation of Orion.

The Skull & Crossbones Nebula is an active star-forming region approximately 20,000 light years away.

A glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from a dying star, IC5148 is at the end of its life, shedding its outer layers and contracting from a red giant to a white dwarf.

IC 4628, sometimes known as The Prawn Nebula, is an emission nebula located around 6000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius

IC 4628, sometimes known as The Prawn Nebula, is an emission nebula located around 6000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius

Shapley 1 is a planetary nebula in the southern sky with a magnitude 14 white dwarf at it's center. It is approximately 4900 light years away, and one third of a light year across.

NGC5367 is a reflection nebula 2000 light years in the Centaurus constellation. The bright blue stars illuminate the otherwise dark molecular cloud complex.

NGC4361 is a planetary nebula with spiral arms similar to a galaxy. The star at the center of the nebula is shedding its outer layers while contracting to form a white dwarf.

The Vela Supernova Remnant is an expanding bubble of ionized gas 800 light years away, caused by a supernova explosion 12000 years ago. This image is a small section of the bubble, presented as a narrowband combination of light emitted by Hydrogen alpha, Sulfur II and Oxygen III.