Starship Asterisk*

Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a beautiful, gigantic cloud of colorful cosmic dust and gas located 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus. It's one of the closest stellar nurseries to the solar system and one of the most-photographed objects in the ni...

Widefield image of the Orion constellation This high-resolution composite image of the Orion constellation was shot over three months over many clear nights in 2021 and 2022. The circular red filament that is prominent as an arc is the Barnard's loop. Towards the bottom left is the Boogieman nebula ...

Messier 51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51 is a grand design spiral galaxy located about 30 million light years away. It appears face-on when seen from Earth and was named the Whirlpool galaxy because of its swirling spiral st...

Messier 82 - The Cigar Galaxy Messier 82 (The Cigar galaxy) is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This galaxy goes through gravitational interactions with its neighbor M81 thereby causing it to have high rate of star formation. Total exposur...

Messier 77 M77 is a barred spiral galaxy and one of the largest galaxies in the Messier catalog. It is located in the constellation Cetus at an approximate distance of 45 million light-years from Earth. Total exposure: 23hours Location: Georgetown Texas https://astrob.in/7n8czw/0/rawthumb/gallery/ge...

California in space Located in the Perseus constellation, The California Nebula appears to outline the state of California. Also known as NGC 1499, this emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. The star most likely providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas is the ...

Nebulae of Monoceros This is an extremely widefield image of two very popular winter targets, Rosette nebula and the Cone nebula, Christmas Tree cluster in the constellation of Monoceros. Towards the left of this image is The Cone Nebula that is a dark structure that arises from cold molecular hydro...

Seven sisters and a baby eagle The Seven Sisters also known as The Pleiades is an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. It is among the star clusters nearest to Earth, and is most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. This object is located on the bottom left of this image. Located on ...

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula is a dense region of dust and gas found within the considerably larger star forming region IC 1396 in Cepheus constellation. Designated IC 1396A, the elongated globule of dust and gas was named the Elephant’s Trunk because it resembles an elephant’...

Orion's horse One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in the Orion constellation, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen...

Melotte 15 Melotte 15 is an open cluster of bright stars located at the Heart of the Heart Nebula. Named for its discoverer, Philibert Jacques Melotte (1880-1961), the grouping of O-type supergiants is only about 1.5 million years old. 'O' stars are the brightest and most massive known- about 20 to ...

The Spaghetti Nebula Catalogued as Sharpless 2-240, this faint supernova remnant goes by the popular nickname, the Spaghetti Nebula. It is fairly large (150 light years across) and located 3000 light years away toward the boundary of the constellations Taurus and Auriga. Light from the massive stell...

Nebulae of the Auriga constellation Flaming star nebula Officially known as IC405, the Flaming Star Nebula likes about 1500 light years and spans approximately 5 light years. The purple region's color is a mixture of red and blue light emitted by the star AE Aurigae but reflected to us by surroundin...

The Shark Nebula (LDN1235) and Anglerfish Nebula (LDN1251) in the Cepheus constellation LDN1251 (on the top of this image) is a complex nebula containing dark structures and faintly glowing / reflecting dust and gas. This type of object is sometimes referred to as a molecular cloud. The Shark Nebul...

The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) also known as Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11 is 7 light-years across – about one-and-a-half times the distance from our sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri – and resides 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. The star forming this ne...

Heart and Soul nebulae in the constellation Cassiopeia Heart and Soul nebulae in the constellation Cassiopeia The Heart Nebula (IC 1805) located on the right of this image, has a shape reminiscent of a classical heart symbol. To the top of the Heart nebula, lies The Fishhead nebula (IC 1795) is a pa...

A very faint but very large squid-like nebula is visible in planet Earth's sky -- but inside a still larger bat. The Giant Squid Nebula cataloged as Ou4, and Sh2-129 also known as the Flying Bat Nebula are in the left region of this image. Barnard 150, also known as Seahorse Nebula, is a dark molecu...