Picture of the Month for 2016

• December 2016 - Picture of the Month

  The California Nebula (NGC 1499) in Perseus

  This image was provided courtesy of Sara Wager. Visit her website for more details about the image and a larger version too.

  Nebulous service has been resumed with a large emission nebula that's probably impossible for me to see from my relatively light polluted location.

  If you're luck enough to find yourself under lovely dark and transparent skies try for NGC 1499 with the naked eye or binoculars, especially with the aid of a deep sky filter or two.

  For once those of you with large telescopes are probably going to struggle, and astrophotographers... I'd guess you've probably already been here, right?

  I've got a soft spot for monochrome. It seems to emphasise detail so much better than colour in my opinion, and Sara's managed to capture a wealth of texture and detail in this nebula.

  It's most likely that we have Xi Persei in the upper middle of this image to thank for that... and Sara of course.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• November 2016 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 559 in the Constellation of Cassiopeia

  Image was provided David Ratledge and you can find this image in David's 2014 archive.

  I've spent some time over the last couple of months in Cassiopeia looking at open clusters. But this one – NGC 559 – somehow escaped me. It's not going to do that for long now I've seen this wonderful image of David's!

  It's crisp and contrasty, capturing the things I love best about these bundles of stars. Whilst not particularly bright, NGC 559 has a Trumpler classification of I1m which should help pull it out from the background.

  Whilst deciding on an image for Picture of the Month I noticed I've been a little nebulosity obsessed recently. I also found that open clusters haven't really featured, and that's a pity because they're fantastic objects to chase. So I've put that right.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• October 2016 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 7023 in the Constellation of Cepheus

  Image was provided courtesy of Bill Snyder. Please click on the image to be taken to a much larger version on his website. He has much more detail about the image itself.

  So after a brief sojourn to galaxies I'm back to a couple of favourites: Cepheus and nebulous open clusters.

  The Iris nebula ticks those boxes very nicely, except NGC 7023 is a reflection nebulae surrounding that bright 7th magnitude star in the middle. According to Archinal and Hynes (Star Clusters) there is an open cluster, but it has nothing to do with the nebula.

  Collinder 427 is just to the right of NGC 7023 itself in this fabulous image, but that's close enough for me to mention it, though as a poorly detached cluster with relatively few stars it isn't really the highlight here.

  However with the advent of the Caldwell Catalogue (NGC7023 is No. 4) it seems that the supposed open cluster surrounding that central star (Collinder 429) might be real again! All very confusing as usual and I'm not going to pretend that I have an answer.

  NGC 7023 is frequently imaged, but I think that Bill has framed this subject extremely well and the dust clouds lend great depth. Well worth observing visual with any aperture.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• September 2016 - Picture of the Month

  IC 5332 in Sculptor

  Back to the southern skies this month with data collected by The Star Shadows Remote Observatory (SSRO) at PROMPT2 - CTIO near La Serena in Chile. I also thought it was about time a galaxy appeared on the Picture of the Month and this is a real beauty, and its brought friends.

  

  This image is provided with the kind permission of Warren A. Keller. The images were acquired by SSRO: Warren Keller, Steve Mazlin, Steve Menaker, Jack Harvey. Please click on the image to be taken to Warren's website for a higher resolution version, its really worth the effort.

  In Warren's words

  IC 5332 in Sculptor is a seldom seen Sc-type spiral galaxy. At a distance of 39,000,000 light-years, it is quite faint and considered 'unremarkable.' Sadly, precious little is written about it but I hope this image will spark some interest in IC 5332. There are numerous, fascinating galaxies surrounding the target, the most interesting of which, PGC 132690 appears at 4 o'clock.

• August 2016 - Picture of the Month

  The Veil Nebula

  This image was provided courtesy of Sara Wager. Please visit her website for much detail about the image and a far better version.

  Nights are getting darker at northern latitudes, astronomical darkness has returned to the UK, and Cygnus is overhead. I have a bit of a mission at this time of year: to explore the Veil Nebula.

  I've heard that its visible with the naked eye with the help of a good O-III narrowband filter from really dark skies, but it certainly isn't from any sky I've experienced.

  There aren't all that many supernova remnants accessible to my small scopes which makes the Veil a bit of a seasonal treat. Especially since the whole complex favours a short focal length due to its huge size. However, the individual NGC objects can be explored in detail with a bigger aperture. So the Veil has something for everyone.

  I love the visual challenge of trying to pull detail from the background glow, but as Sara has shown with this wonderful wide-field mosaic, it responds really well the narrowband imaging. Her web page highlights the Eastern and Western Veil where I've had visual success… albeit somewhat less well defined.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• July 2016 - Picture of the Month

  Looking towards the centre of the Milky Way

  This image was provided courtesy of Robert Gendler, please click on it to see a larger version.

  I've chosen another wide-field image for the Picture of the Month. This fantastic mosaic spans at least three constellations and is packed with deep-sky objects including open clusters, bright and dark nebulae and a globular cluster too. For us beginners, the Messier catalogue is well represented by, I think, 8 objects.

  Most importantly this is the centre of our own galaxy and I find the view staggering. It's not easy to see from my northern latitude in the UK, and light pollution robs us of a great deal, but I find this image is mesmerising. What deep-sky observing is made of.

  The image in this article doesn't to justice to Rob Gendler's work: it's just too small. Click on it to see a larger version, but better yet, visit Rob's website to learn more about the Galactic Center and view some really huge versions. There's one that's annotated too.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• June 2016 - Picture of the Month

  The Region surrounding Antares in Scorpio

  Image was provided courtesy of Stefan Binnewies, Otto Guthier, Rainer Sparenberg and Josef Pöpsel. Please visit www.capella-observatory.com for more information about this image.

  This outstanding image is here this month because I spotted it on www.capella-observatory.com and was stunned by the colour and how many deep-sky objects it contains.

  There are no less than three large globular clusters, a mass of bright nebulae with a few dark ones thrown in, and too many double stars for me to count! I haven't spotted any galaxies though 😉

  But my ulterior motive is that this is a composite of images taken on film. I'm still a film photographer in the daylight, and the detail and vibrancy of this image leaves me stunned. Please click on the image above to view its larger brother it's well worth it.

  It's not the easiest region of the sky to observe from the UK, because it's low and the skies are always bright, but those further south may have more success in June.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

  Oh, and there are also a couple of planets nearby this year, but we don't speak of them.

• May 2016 - Picture of the Month

  M92 in the Constellation of Hercules

  Image was provided Bernhard Hubl. Please visit his website to see more of his work and for more details about the image.

  Globluar cluster season is here and this is one of the best of these ancient objects in your web administrator's opinion. Bernhard has done a fantastic job of resolving this dense ball of stars and bringing out the colour in many of them.

  It's not a difficult object to find, but worth the effort in any sized scope. Not too difficult to resolve a large number of stars in a large scope. More of a challenge in a small one though.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• April 2016 - Picture of the Month

  M101 in the Constellation of Ursa Major

  Image was provided courtesy of Bob and Janice Fera. Please click on the image to be taken to a much larger version on their website.

  It's a challenge to pick a galaxy that Owen isn't going to use in the Galaxy of the Month. Fortunately he has a passion for the faint and obscure, so I thought I was on safe ground this month. That was until I read this month's Astronomy Now…

  All the same I'm happy with my choice. M101 is not a particularly difficult object unless you have poor skies. That's exactly what I've got, so I've never seen more than a smudge of light under the best conditions, and that's reason enough to include this detail packed wide field image.

  For those with small scopes or binoculars and skies like mine M101 can be an interesting hunt in itself. For something tougher why not go after its HII regions. It's also worth taking a look at the full size image on Bob and Janice's website, because there are plenty of other galaxies to chase in this field!

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• March 2016 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 5189 in the Constellation of Musca

  Image was provided courtesy of Rainer Sparenberg, Stefan Binnewies and Volker Robering. Please visit www.capella-observatory.com for more details about the image.

  This is a beautiful image of an extraordinary planetary nebula in the Southern skies. Its status as a planetary nebula is relatively recent due to its size and unusual structure, being settled by spectroscopic measurements. Hubble took a look a few years ago and provided supporting evidence for this being a binary system, so there's a double star in the Picture of the Month.

  It would appear that opinion has been divided over the discoverer of this object: John Herschel from the Cape in 1835 or James Dunlop in 1826. NGC 5189 has been shown to correspond to Δ252 in Dunlop's catalogue, and so it would seem that Dunlop was there first.

  It's also one of those objects with an impressive array of identities.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• February 2016 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 2237 (The Rosette Nebula) in the Constellation of Monoceros

  Another nebula you might be thinking, and you'd be quite right. I've thrown in another open cluster too, NGC 2244, but there are no apologies. Being a small scope user I like the big and bold, and this image from Warren Keller and Michael Miller works just perfectly for me.

  

  Warren's description

  A staggering 50 light years across, it is a nursery to NGC 2244, the 'new' (1M year old) cluster of stars at center. Dark veins called Bok globules give the rose its petals. As a guitar player, it has special meaning. Stemming from the medieval lute, the beautiful decoration around a guitar's soundhole is also called a rosette. Thanks to Michael Miller for acquiring the data.

  For a more detailed version, and a Hubble palette version too, please visit Warren's website: Billions and Billions.com.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• January 2016 - Picture of the Month

  IC405 and IC410 in Auriga

  Auriga has been a favourite constellation of mine since I first pointed a telescope at the sky. Even a relative beginner with a small aperture telescope can find something to observe in and around the charioteer.

  To start with there are the Messier open clusters (M36, M37 and M38), but I love scanning the region to the SW of M38. I find that it looks slightly hazy to the naked eye on a good night - which would be welcome.

  I've recently caught the planetary and bright nebulae bug, and whilst researching those I discovered a new challenge sitting in plain view.

  In the image below, IC405 is in the bottom left. It contains a variable star (AE Aurigae) that is passing through whilst pouring radiation into the surrounding emission nebula. Apart from managed to squeeze another variable star into Picture of the Month, it's also a goal of mine to observe IC405… not an easy one from my location though.

  Continuing the two for one theme, in the top right of David Davies' image is emission nebula IC410, which contains another favourite type of target: an open cluster, NGC 1893. My very limited research has suggests that the nebula is probably a challenge too far for me, so the open cluster will have to do.

  Thank you to David Davies of Cambridge (UK) for allowing me to raid his archive for this image. For more images from David please visit his Flickr Photostream.

  Those with larger aperture scopes or darker skies may fair better, and as you can see, a camera can capture much more.

  I suspect that many of you have seen all this before, but it still makes a fabulous picture and I hope shows that there are objects out there to provide deep-sky observing for us all.

  James Whinfrey - 1 January 2016