As usual, there are many great images in this thread!
I have to start off by the one I like best - NGC 7538 the largest known protostar, by Emil Ivanov. What a fantastic, powerful, delightfully colorful portrait this is of this rare gem in the Milky Way, a truly massive baby star being born! I can't remember having seen a picture of NGC 7538 before. Thank you so much for photographing it, Emil, and for making this stellar infant look so splendid!
Knut Schäffner, you said that you hope that your image of the Horsehead Nebula will become your first APOD. If it was up to me, I would gladly bestow that honour on you. I love how you bring out wonderful details of the nebulosity without playing down the blue blaze of Alnitak. It's so great that your image reminds us what a blindingly powerful star Alnitak really is, the brightest-looking of all O-type stars in the sky! And please remember that the red nebulosity that everyone loves so much is usually a product of hot blue stars.
Speaking of blue details, Christoph Puetz, I love how your image brings out delightful structural detail in the blue reflection nebulosity in the Christmas Tree Cluster near another O star, S Monocerotis. That much detail in this nebula is not often seen.
And speaking even more about blue details, Marco Angelini and Fabio Tagliani (acquisition); Francesco Antonucci (processing) have produced their own delightful portrait of the Seven Sisters and their tangled "hair". Great astrophotographer David Malin once described the appearance of the reflection nebulosity around Pleiads Maya and Merope as "combed hair". David Malin explained that dust align near these stars along magnetic lines. I very much like the "stars and stripes" designation, too!
Lorenzo Comolli, your image of the Galactic center sure is very beautiful. We really live in a handsome galaxy!
Michael Wendl, your sketch of the Sun in H-alpha is less beautiful, but quite fascinating. The creepy crawlies of the Sun are attacking, perhaps?
Karel Bůna & Martin Bůna, I really like your image of the Perseus Cluster. I really like how you bring out the cluster's elongated shape. It reminds me of the overall filamentary structure of the universe, where galaxy clusters form long "chains". Your image is like seeing a closeup of such a galactic "filament"!
VegaStar Charpentier, I like the serene beauty of your Orion's Belt and Sword.
Scott Tucker, that's a very fine image of galaxies M77 and NGC 1055. M77 is one of the really fascinating nearby galaxies with its active nucleus and large starforming faint outer arms, and it is fun to be reminded that NGC 1055 is M77's neighbour. The details of NGC 1055 are interesting, too: the galaxy contains very large amounts of dust, and some of this dust has given birth to bright localized star formation.
Bill Snyder, your portrait of the Dumbbell Nebula looks very fine.
Fernando Piña Reina, I like the title of your image, "Sun and Dog". I really like how both the Sun and the Dog make reflections in the water!
Bob Franke, I'm always very happy to see a new galaxy image from you!
There are many "Moon and Venus" images here, and I like them all. I must say the Canton Tower looks impressive. My favorite among these images, however, is Jimmy Westlake's Moon and Venus over Twin Peaks. Jimmy, your image makes me think that the Moon is an exasperated parent who is scolding her child!
Thanks to everyone who contributed images to this thread!
Ann
