Jason Nishiyama
@evilscientistca
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: Alberta, Canada
M9 is a globular cluster located about 25.8 kly away in the constellation of Ophiuchus. Globular clusters orbit our Galaxy in its halo. They have also been detected orbiting other galaxies. #astronomy
M51 is a spiral galaxy located about 25 Mly away in the constellation of Cannes Venatici. Easily found in a small telescope, it's an example of interacting galaxies as the upper part is a second, smaller galaxy. #astronomy
M6 is an open cluster located about 1600 ly away in the constellation of Scorpius. Open clusters help us understand how stars evolve as their members were formed more or less at the same time. It allows a snapshot of how different masses of stars evolve compared to others in the cluster. #astronomy
Stephan's Quintet is a group of 5 galaxies located about 250 Mly away in the constellation of Pegasus. Only 4 of the 5 galaxies are members of the same galactic group. NGC 7320 (galaxy lower right) is only about 39 Mly away and is a foreground object. #astronomy
NGC 6058 is a planetary nebula located about 11 kly away in the constellation of Hercules. It is a star that has blown off it's outer layers. What was the star's core is now a central star that emits much UV light which causes the blown off gas to glow as the nebula. #astronomy
Uranus is the 7th planet of our solar system. With Neptune, Uranus is one of two ice giant planets in our solar system. Uranus' rotational axis is highly tilted to its orbital plane at about 82 degrees (the Earth's is at 23.5 degrees) meaning that it rotates on its side. #astronomy
M13 is a globular cluster located about 24 kly away in the constellation of Hercules. This cluster is easy to find with even binoculars and is worth a look. Finder chart in second image. #astronomy
M28 is a globular cluster located about 18 kly away in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is reddish in this image as from the telescope location it was very close to the southern horizon. The Earth's atmosphere scattered away much of the blue light, making the objects appear redder. #astronomy
M78 is a reflection nebula located about 1350ly away in the constellation of Orion. M78 appears blue because it is a reflection nebula, which appear blue because the particle size in the nebula is such that it scatters blue light towards us. The red light goes through away from us. #astronomy
The band of faint light we see across a portion of the night sky is the Milky Way. It is our Galaxy, a barred spiral galaxy that we see from inside the disk. When you look at the constellation Sagittarius you are looking towards the core of our Galaxy. #astronomy
M104 is a spiral galaxy located about 31 Mly away in the constellation of Virgo. As the galaxy is close to edge on we can see a prominent dust lane along the outer edge of the galaxy. #astronomy
IC1747 (small blue dot at centre) is a planetary nebula located about 9800 ly away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Planetary nebula are stellar remnants, stars around the mass of the Sun in their death throes. Eventually only a white dwarf star will remain. #astronomy
NGC 4647 (smaller galaxy at centre) is a spiral galaxy located about 57 Mly away in the constellation of Virgo. Studies have shown that it may be starting to interact with the larger elliptical galaxy, M60 which is about the same distance from us. #astronomy
NGC 3384 (upper of the three galaxies at centre) is an elliptical galaxy located about 35 Mly away in the constellation of Leo. Studies have shown that over 80% of its stars are Pop II, that is low metallicity. This means its stars are very old. #astronomy
M108 is a barred spiral galaxy located about 46 Mly away in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has an estimated mass of about 125 billion time the Sun's mass. Like our Galaxy M108 has an extensive system of 250+ globular clusters. #astronomy
Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun in our solar system. Saturn has the most spectacular ring system in the solar system. Made of mostly ices, the particles are at most a few metres across. The rings are less than 100m thick. #astronomy
Jupiter is the 5th planet from the Sun and the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter is a gas giant, a large ball of hydrogen, helium, and other gases.
And here's M41 in red light when you forget to pull the focusing mask of the telescope...
M41 is an open cluster located about 2360 ly away in the constellation of Canis Major. It's about 200 million years old. Its stars are likely to be scattered when it hits about 500 million years old. #astronomy
M27 is a planetary nebula located about 1300 ly away in the constellation of Velpecula. The first such object discovered, it was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764, though Messier didn't identify it as such. #astronomy
The Moon is our closest neighbour in space. Though it appears to they eye to be grey, it does have mor subtle colouring as seen in this image. The colours being caused by the different minerals in the lunar surface. #astronomy
NGC 2903 is a barred spiral galaxy located about 30 Mly away in the constellation of Leo. It is a field galaxy, that is not belonging to a galaxy group, and hence is gravitationally isolated. It is a member of the Virgo supercluster however. #astronomy
M96 is a spiral galaxy located about 31 Mly away in the constellation of Leo. M96 is about the same size and mass as our own Milky Way Galaxy. #astronomy
M33 is a spiral galaxy located about 2.9 Mly away in the constellation of Triangulum. It is the third largest spiral galaxy in our Local Group behind M31 and our own Galaxy. #astronomy
M63 is a flocculant spiral galaxy located about 29 Mly away in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Flocculant spirals tend to not have strong spiral structures looking "fluffy" instead. #astronomy
M110 is an elliptical galaxy located about 2.7 Mly away in the constellation of Andromeda. M110 is a satellite galaxy of the large spiral galaxy M31, the Andromeda galaxy. Many large galaxies, even our own, have smaller satellite galaxies. #astronomy
NGC 7000, the North America Nebula, is an emission nebula located about 2600 ly away in the constellation of Cygnus. What forms the dark part of the nebula (making the "Gulf of Mexico") is a dark nebula, L935, about 1900ly away which blocks NGC7000's light. #astronomy