Swan Nebula (M17)

This image was taken from my deck in Abbotsford on July 12, 2013.  It consists of 9 10-minute images registered and combined in CCDStack and processed in Photoshop CS5.

The Swan Nebula is located in the rich star fields of Sagittarius 5,000 light years away.  It is a close neighbour of M16. Bright but obscured stars, about 20 times more massive than the Sun, are hidden in the nebulousity. Radiation from these stars is ionizing the cloud of hydrogen gas.  The bright central region is the result of light emitted from the hottest gas, mixed with reflected light from the embedded stars.

Trifid Nebula (M20)

This image was taken from my deck in Abbotsford on July 15, 2013.  It consists of 8 10-minute images registered and combined in CCDStack and processed in Photoshop CS5.

The Trifid Nebula is in Sagittarius 5,000 light years away.  It gets its name from its three-lobed appearance, and contains both red emission from ionized hydrogen and blue reflection of star light from dust grains.

Bubble Nebula (C11)

This image was taken from my deck in Abbotsford in August  4 & 7, 2013.  It consists of 27 10-minute images registered and combined in CCDStack and processed in Photoshop CS5.

The Bubble Nebula is in Cassiopeia 11,000 light years away.  It is a planetary nebula visible as a large shell around a central star.  The bubble is about 10 light years across and was created by fierce stellar winds from the hot, massive central star, which has blasted out the structure of glowing gas.