Nebula

The Eagle Nebula is a cluster of stars newly formed or in the process of forming. On April 1, 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of the central region of the nebula, which is now famously referred to as the Pillars of Creation. You can see these pillars within the middle of my image. You can al see another feature within this image, the Stellar Spire, which is located to the top-left of the Pillars. Just like the pillars, the Spire is a birthplace of stars.

Located in the constellation Serpens, The Eagle Nebula is 5,700 light years away. Officially, the Eagle Nebula is considered an open cluster. However, a much larger region, identified as IC 4703, is an emission nebula, which contains a strong hydrogen-alpha signal.

In the constellation Ursa Major, you can find M82, The Cigar Galaxy. M82 is part of a group of galaxies, called the M81 group. M82 and M81 (Bode’s Galaxy) are the brightest members of the group. M82 and the associated group are fairly close, only 12 million light years away, making it a fairly easy galaxy to image due because it is so bright.

The starburst activity, shown in yellow/orange color, is due to M82 interacting with M81. The starburst activity is better seen with the use of a hygrogen-alpha filter.

The Cat’s Eye nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation Draco. A planetary nebula is the ejected shell of a red giant star at the end of a medium sized star’s life. This particular planetary nebula is around 3,300 light years away. The small fuzzy object to the right is the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6552, which lies 350 million light years away.

The M95 galaxy, the Sunflower Galaxy (also known as NGC 5055), is located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is a spiral galaxy 29 million light years away. The galaxy is active (weakly), which means it is producing stars in the red regions. Those regions are hydrogen emissions (hydrogen-alpha).