Category: KPO Astrophotography

Caught on a rare clear summer night in Central Florida, here is the Lagoon Nebula / Messier 8 (bottom) and the Trifid Nebula / Messier 20 (top).  Both M8 and M20 are star-forming regions, with M8 showing off all its Bok globules (the small dark pockets of dust and gas), which are cocoons for infant Read More …

This is the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, which lies near the summer Milky Way on the border between the constellations of Scorpius and Ophiuchus. This area is loaded with gas and dust, and is home to many deep sky objects. It is also one of the more colorful nebulae in the sky. The bright star Read More …

Here is the final result from the Total Lunar Eclipse of May 15-16, 2022. This is a high dynamic range (HDR) image, in that two integrated images were combined to form the final result. The starscape background and the moonglow were captured in a 60 second exposure. Then at mid eclipse, a 1/2 second series Read More …

The area around Messier 101 is loaded with galaxies. There are no less than 5 galaxies in this image, which represents 6.5 hours of integrated exposure time. The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. Read More …

Here are M81 & M82 in Ursa Major, known by the proper name of Bode’s Galaxies, named after their discoverer, Johann Elert Bode in 1774. These are the main members of the M81 group of galaxies. Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031, top center) is a grand design spiral galaxy, lying about 12 million Read More …