The needle's eye Galaxy (NGC 247) NGC 247 (aka Caldwell 62) is a dwarf spiral galaxy in Cetus, and it is a member of the Sculptor Group, the nearest group of galaxies to our Local Group which includes the Milky Way. NGC 247 has a slightly irregular shape on one end where the spiral arm has a hollowed out appearance on long-exposure photographs, resembling the shape of a neddle's eye. It is about the same size as NGC 253, but two magnitudes fainter. Recent measurements placed this galaxy about 11 million light-years away, about 1 million light-years closer than the estimated distance of NGC 253. In the above wide field image is also revealed the rich background of this area which features a multitude of other galaxies, located a lot farther from our planet than NGC 247. Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (300m) L (390m) R (270m) G (220m) B (240m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia - glittering lights

light from far far away..

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NGC 4945 in Centaurus

Large spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this cosmic galaxy portrait. In fact, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Its own dusty disk, young blue star clusters, and pink star forming regions standout in the sharp, colorful telescopic image. About 13 million light-years distant toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus, NGC 4945 is only about six times farther away than Andromeda, the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. Though the galaxy's central region is largely hidden from view for optical telescopes, X-ray and infrared observations indicate significant high energy emission and star formation in the core of NGC 4945. Its obscured but active nucleus qualifies the gorgeous island universe as a Seyfert galaxy and likely home to a central supermassive black hole. The other prominent galaxy in the field, NGC 4976, is an elliptical galaxy. Left of center, NGC 4976 is much farther away, at a distance of about 35 million light-years, and not physically associated with NGC 4945 (text adapted from APOD).
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Unusual Giant Galaxy NGC 1316

Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of startling sights like NGC 1316. Their investigation indicates that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that started, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller spiral galaxy neighbor, NGC 1317, just above it. Supporting evidence includes the dark dust lanes characteristic of a spiral galaxy, and faint swirls of stars and gas visible in this wide and deep image. What remains unexplained are the unusually small globular star clusters, seen as faint dots on the image. Most elliptical galaxies have more and brighter globular clusters than NGC 1316. Yet the observed globulars are too old to have been created by the recent spiral collision. One hypothesis is that these globulars survive from an even earlier galaxy that was subsumed into NGC 1316 (text adapted from APOD).
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Sharpless 308

Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major and covers over 2/3 degree on the sky (compared with 1/2 degree for the Full Moon). That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star itself, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright blue one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured in the expansive image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to bluish hues (text adapted from APOD).
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M46 & M47: Star Clusters Young and Old

Many stars form in clusters. Galactic or open star clusters are relatively young swarms of bright stars born together near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Separated by about a degree on the sky, two nice examples are M46 (lower left) 5,400 light-years in the distance and M47 (upper right) only 1,600 light-years away toward the nautical constellation Puppis. Around 300 million years young M46 contains a few hundred stars in a region about 30 light-years across. Aged 80 million years, M47 is a smaller but looser cluster of about 50 stars spanning 10 light-years. But this portrait of stellar youth also contains an ancient interloper. The small, colorful patch of glowing gas in M46 is actually the planetary nebula NGC 2438 - the final phase in the life of a sun-like star billions of years old. NGC 2438 is estimated to be only 3,000 light-years distant and likely represents a foreground object, only by chance appearing along our line of sight to youthful M46 (text adapted from APOD).
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Sharpless 63

This is the high latitude molecular cloud MBM 159, which is located at a distance of about 220 pc and may form part of the Aquila rift.Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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NGC 1365: Majestic Spiral with Supernova

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax galaxy cluster. This enlargement of the Fornax cluster image shows the galaxy before and few days after the explosion of the bright Ia supernova SN2012fr, discovered on October 27. The supernova is the bright blue star close to the galaxy core (text adapted from APOD).Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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Fornax Galaxy Cluster

At a distance of approximately 62 million of light years, the Fornax Cluster is the second richest cluster of galaxies within 100 million light-years, although it is much smaller than the Virgo Cluster. It lies primarily in the constellation Fornax, and may be associated with the nearby Eridanus Group. Although small as clusters of galaxies go, the Fornax Cluster is a valuable source of information about the evolution of such clusters, showing the effects of a merger of a subgroup with the main group, which in turn lends clues about the associated galactic superstructure. At the centre of the cluster lies NGC 1399. Other noteworthy cluster members include NGC 1350, 1427A and NGC 1404. NGC 1365 (bottom right in the image) is the most famous galaxy in the Fornax cluster. It is a barred spiral galaxy with a beautiful shape. (text adapted from Wikipedia).Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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Barnard's Galaxy in the mist

Nearby galaxy NGC 6822 is irregular in several ways. First, the galaxy's star distribution merits a formal classification of dwarf irregular, and from our vantage-point the small galaxy appears nearly rectangular. What strikes astronomers as more peculiar, however, is NGC 6822's unusually high abundance of HII regions, locales of ionized hydrogen that surround young stars. Large HII regions, also known as emission nebulas, are visible surrounding the small galaxy, particularly toward the upper right. Toward the lower left are bright stars that are loosely grouped into an arm. Pictured above, NGC 6822, also known as Barnard's Galaxy, is located only about 1.5 million light years away and so is a member of our Local Group of Galaxies. The galaxy, home to famous nebulas including Hubble V, is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of Sagittarius (text adapted from APOD).Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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The needle's eye Galaxy (NGC 247)

NGC 247 (aka Caldwell 62) is a dwarf spiral galaxy in Cetus, and it is a member of the Sculptor Group, the nearest group of galaxies to our Local Group which includes the Milky Way.

NGC 247 has a slightly irregular shape on one end where the spiral arm has a hollowed out appearance on long-exposure photographs, resembling the shape of a neddle's eye. It is about the same size as NGC 253, but two magnitudes fainter. Recent measurements placed this galaxy about 11 million light-years away, about 1 million light-years closer than the estimated distance of NGC 253.

In the above wide field image is also revealed the rich background of this area which features a multitude of other galaxies, located a lot farther from our planet than NGC 247. Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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The Topsy-Turvy Galaxy NGC 1313

Why is this galaxy so discombobulated? Usually, galaxies this topsy-turvy result from a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. Spiral galaxy NGC 1313, however, appears to be alone. Brightly lit with new and blue massive stars, star formation appears so rampant in NGC 1313 that it has been labeled a starburst galaxy. Strange features of NGC 1313 include that its spiral arms are lopsided and its rotational axis is not at the center of the nuclear bar. Pictured above, NGC 1313 spans about 50,000 light years and lies only about 15 million light years away toward the constellation of the Reticle (Reticulum). Continued numerical modeling of galaxies like NGC 1313 might shed some light on its unusual nature (text adapted from APOD).Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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M16 and the Eagle Nebula

Young star cluster M16 is surrounded by natal clouds of cosmic dust and glowing gas also known as The Eagle Nebula. This image of the region includes fantastic shapes made famous in well-known Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the upper left edge of the nebula is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 and the Eagle Nebula lie about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake) (text adapted from APOD).Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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Stars and Dust Across Corona Australis

Cosmic dust clouds sprawl across a rich field of stars in this sweeping telescopic vista near the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. Probably less than 500 light-years away and effectively blocking light from more distant, background stars in the Milky Way, the densest part of the dust cloud is about 8 light-years long. At its tip (upper right) is a group of lovely reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, and IC 4812. A characteristic blue color is produced as light from hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust. The smaller yellowish nebula (NGC 6729) surrounds young variable star R Coronae Australis. Magnificent globular star cluster NGC 6723 is toward the upper right corner of the view. While NGC 6723 appears to be part of the group, it actually lies nearly 30,000 light-years away, far beyond the Corona Australis dust clouds (text adapted from APOD).Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

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IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula

South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, radiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms. The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow. At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250 light-years across. The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as The Prawn Nebula (text adapted from APOD).
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Lobster Nebula NGC 6357

For reasons unknown, NGC 6357 is forming some of the most massive stars ever discovered. Near the more obvious Cat's Paw nebula, NGC 6357 houses the open star cluster Pismis 24, home to these tremendously bright and blue stars. The overall red glow near the inner star forming region results from the emission of ionized hydrogen gas. The surrounding nebula, shown above, holds a complex tapestry of gas, dark dust, stars still forming, and newly born stars. The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity. NGC 6357 spans about 400 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion (text adapted from APOD).
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The needle's eye Galaxy (NGC 247)

NGC 247 (aka Caldwell 62) is a dwarf spiral galaxy in Cetus, and it is a member of the Sculptor Group, the nearest group of galaxies to our Local Group which includes the Milky Way.
NGC 247 has a slightly irregular shape on one end where the spiral arm has a hollowed out appearance on long-exposure photographs, resembling the shape of a neddle's eye. It is about the same size as NGC 253, but two magnitudes fainter. Recent measurements placed this galaxy about 11 million light-years away, about 1 million light-years closer than the estimated distance of NGC 253.
In the above wide field image is also revealed the rich background of this area which features a multitude of other galaxies, located a lot farther from our planet than NGC 247.

Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (300m) L (390m) R (270m) G (220m) B (240m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

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