Picture of the Month for 2020

• December 2020 - Picture of the Month

  Barnard’s Loop (Sh 2-276) in Orion

  

  I've chosen to look at the winter sky with a wide view this month. I make it just under 14 degrees across covering much of the body of the Hunter. If you take the time to zoom in on the large image on Don's website, and I suggest you do, you'll find that it's packed with nebulae of all kinds.

  We have dark nebula LDN 1622 on the left of this image, and passing through the M78 to the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) we can see the Horsehead nebula (Barnard 33) clearly visible against NGC 2023 in the centre of the field with Orion's belt stars are arrayed nearly vertically. And just in case you were dazzled by this light show, still moving to the right we find NGC 1977 and the pairing of M42 and M42 providing another beacon of star formation.

  However for me the main feature is that rift of dust and light that runs from top to bottom on the left, and then curving back around into the bottom right corner of the image. This is Barnard's Loop that forms a bubble around the vigorous star forming regions I've just mentioned in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Frankly I'm amazed at the extent of the structure in the dust that is captured across the whole image.

  I'd love to be able to observe Barnard's Loop, even the brighter sections, with binoculars. But that's not likely so these hydrogen-alpha images are next best thing in my opinion. Fortunately you can visually observe many of the other objects captured here and clearly it's an astrophotographers dream.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• November 2020 - Picture of the Month

  The Soul Nebula (IC 1848) in Cassiopeia

  

  Quite by chance I found that Patrick had chosen an object about two and a half degrees to the north-west of my destination for his column this month. At first I thought "that was close", but similar though the Heart and Soul nebulae are, he has picked out the visual targets in the Heart, whereas I've decided to present the whole of the Soul in narrowband imaged glory!

  The Soul Nebula is around 150 light-years wide and 6500 light-years distant. As usual it goes by many names including Westerhout 5, Sharpless 2-199 and of course IC 1848. It's also another example of my love of dust and the resulting star formation which is blowing these spectacular bubbles. It's also home to a large radio source, hence the Westerhout number.

  David's image uses the SHaO Hubble palete to bring out the nebula, but with the addition of RGB stars. It comprise 14 hours of narrowband data and 8 hours of LRGB data, a total of 21 hours. This isn't something that you're going to see visually, but as Patrick has shown, some of the clusters are worth a try.

  NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) captured an amazing image of the Heart and Soul together in the infrared that's well worth a look.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• October 2020 - Picture of the Month

  LDN 1235 (Shark Nebula) in Cepheus

  

  More dust and reflections in my Picture of the Month as we head to one of my favourite constellations.

  Whilst the band of dust that traverses the diagonals of this glorious image culminating at the top left in the Shark nebula (LDN 1235) itself forms the main feature for this month, it's set off beautifully by the two reflection nebulae in their characteristic blue: vdB 149 and vbB 150.

  According to my reading LDN 1235 is likely an Extended Red Emission nebula (ERE) which emits between 600 and 800 nm. Given the redness of this and the proximity to that magnitude 6 star I doubt that this faint extended object is a visual target. It's normally the dense background of Milky Way stars that make dark nebulae visible rather than red emitted radiation. LDN 1235 sits well north of the Milky Way.

  As for the two reflection nebulae at the top and bottom of this image, the van den Bergh (vdB) catalog lists both with surface brightness of M (moderate), and that makes them a tough visual challenge as well, but possible.

  As you can see though these objects make wonderful imaging targets.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• September 2020 - Picture of the Month

  The Flying Lizard Nebula and NGC 602 in Hydrus

  

  I'm heading south for this month's picture for an object on the eastern edge of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

  I particularly love young star clusters – this one's been about for around 5 million years – because they come with the nebulosity of the surrounding gas and dust from which they were created.

  The nebula is know as the Flying Lizard, or more officially N90, and NGC 602 is the open cluster embedded within that's blowing the bubble we can see in this image. Steve has both of the main concentrations of cluster stars, plenty of reflection and emission from the nebula, and glimpses of a few background galaxies, including a wonderful spiral just to the right of centre that is much clearer in this Hubble image.

  What is also captured towards the bottom left from N90 is the circular outline of a supernova remnant with a bright star (14th magnitude in this case) at its centre. This, I believe, is the X-ray pulsar SXP 1062, and there's an image of that by ESA's XMM-Newton.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• August 2020 - Picture of the Month

  The North American (NGC 7000) and Pelican (IC 5070) Nebulae in Cygnus

  

  I couldn't quite believe that I've overlooked this pair of nebulae. I've looked at them through my telescope, with binoculars and they're a favourite in the imaging world, but nope, there not in the Picture of the Month catalogue. Until now.

  They are a fine sight with the North American nebula (NGC 7000) on the left and the Pelican nebula (IC 5070) on the right in the image above. There's a band of thick dust running between them to form the two nebulae and the 'Gulf of Mexico' feature. I can't say that I've had a view like this visually. The brighter regions stand out, especially with a UHC filter on the eyepiece, but nothing like this.

  As an astrophotographer Sara's used a hydrogen alpha filter and long exposures to bring out this level of detail, which is pretty standard practice these days, or so I understand.

  Whilst I've chosen to present the 'classical' view of this pair. She also combined this with some O-III data for a spectacular image you'll have to visit her website to see. It's worth it, and she also has a much better version of this image there too.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• July 2020 - Picture of the Month

  A very wide field of Messier 11 in Scutum

  

  I'll admit it, my selection this month isn't about the nice open cluster in the middle below centre: tiny looking isn't it, but M11 is lovely in even in a small telescope.

  The thing is that I discovered that I've never visited Scutum in this column, so I opted to show a large chunk of the northern half of it in one glorious image that's more than ten degrees across. We've actually got a fair piece of Aquila on the left too.

  This view is packed with the stars of the Milky Way, open clusters and, more than anything, dark nebulae. I really encourage you to take a look at Bernhard's labelled version of this image to appreciate how busy this region is, especially for the astrophotographers.

  There are even a couple of emission nebulae in the form of Sharpless 66 and 67 within that wonderful large dust cloud at the top of the image.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• June 2020 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 5986 in Lupus

  

  It's summer here in the north, so the skies are bright unless you head further south, so I decided to look for an object that's visible from southern climes. It then struck me that we haven't had a globular cluster for a while.

  Here's an wonderful image of a globular that doesn't get as much press as it's Messier cousins further north. It's a bright cluster and shouldn't pose problems for small telescopes. As always resolving the stars in these globular clusters benefits from more aperture.

  It's a beauty though, and when I contacted Steve to ask if I could use his image he laughed and told me that he was processing a new version for which he'd just collected the data with his new, and bigger, scope. So this is hot from the press!

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• The NGC 5363/NGC 5364 galaxy group in Virgo

  May 2020 - Picture of the Month

  

  The pairing in the title appears to the left of this image: NGC 5363 is the elliptical galaxy towards the top near that 8th magnitude star, and NGC 5364 is the spectacular spiral 14 arc-minutes below.

  I'd like to claim another pair of interacting galaxies to go with Owen's Galaxy of the Month this May, but opinion seems divided. There certainly isn't a lot of visual evidence of interaction at this point, apart from a slight asymmetry in the spiral arms of NGC 5364. The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) suggests that they can't be much more than 5 Mly apart. But perhaps that's too far? Oh well.

  Most of these galaxies appear to be members of number 362 in the Lyon Groups of Galaxies (LGG) catalogue, the exception being NGC 5373 on the extreme left which is much further beyond this group. There's an addition needed for the full seven group members, and this is NGC 5300 nearly two and a half degrees to the West and way out of shot!

  The Night Sky Observer's Guide (NSOG) suggests that NGC 5363, NGC5364 and NGC 5300 can be visually observed with relatively modest sized telescopes. I think something with 12-inches of aperture or more is likely to be necessary to do a good job on this group. I'm going to give it a go with my 10-inch just to find out.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• April 2020 - Picture of the Month

  The λ Centauri Nebula in the Constellation of Centaurus

  

  I've had a run of galaxies. So I thought it was about time to return to some nebular goodness, and I decided to do it with a former APOD image of the Stars and Globules in the Running Chicken Nebula. Personally I think I prefer the λ Centauri nebula name to the Running Chicken, but whichever it's a stunning area of the southern sky.

  I'm guessing that this is about a 25 arc-minute field of view packed with interesting objects. The nebula is comprised of a a few of emission nebulae, but in this image is primarily about IC 2944 and IC 2948 which are centred about 30 arc-minutes southeast of λ Centauri.

  The centre of Collinder 249 is around those bright stars and the cluster of Bok globues in the upper left of the image. Often IC 2944 also appears to refer to this open cluster in addition to be nebulosity, but as Archinal and Hynes point out there is no indication of the cluster in the IC, the IC2944 designation should not be used for the cluster itself. The open cluster is 65 arc-minutes in diameter and so the associated nebula, IC 2944, would theoretically include all that's in this image.

  This is another stellar nursery and the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) found condensing stars in those Bok globules that might not make it unless they're quick: that gas and dust is being rapidly eroded by intense UV radiation. There's a great close up of the Bok globules in the cluster acquired by ESO's Very Large Telescope.

  The Running Chicken nebula is the bright emission nebula taking center stage. This is associated with the IC 2948 designation, although SIMBAD incorrectly associates this with the cluster, and it could be considered chicken-like, or perhaps a shrimp?

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• March 2020 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 3344 in the Constellation of Leo Minor

  

  I've gone for another galaxy image this month, and this time there's no mitigating nebulosity around. But we are entering the season for galaxies.

  All the same it is a stunning object and one that I've observed with my 10-inch reflector a couple of years ago in pursuit of the Herschel 400. It was very faint and I almost missed it in my suburban skies. It certainly didn't look like this, I particularly noted that I couldn't see any texture!

  If you visit Bernhard's web page, and I suggest that you do, there's an image that points out some faint galaxies in this field. This included a new dwarf galaxy discovered by a pro-am group called Tief Belichtete Galaxien (TBG) to which Bernhard seems to contribute. It's inspiring to see that there's some real science being done by amateur astrophotographers.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• February 2020 - Picture of the Month

  M81, M82 and the IFN in the Constellation of Ursa Major

  

  It's time for another galaxy or two, but I have to be careful not to clash with Owen's Galaxy of the Month. My normal tactic is to choose something bright. So with Ursa Major nearly overhead I started searching for M81 and M82. This pair are showpieces for both visual observers and imagers. What I found has some added interest in the form of nebulosity, always a favourite of mine.

  Terry's beautiful image reveals the glow of the integrated flux nebula (IFN): the light of the stars in our own galaxy reflected from its interstellar dust and gas. It's faint and required 11.5 hours of integrated imaging time to capture using a 130mm telescope and CMOS camera. The IFN provides an atmospheric – can I use that word to describe interstellar space? – foreground to these two interacting galaxies which show terrific detail.

  There's no shortage of galaxies in this field. In addition for the feature pair there's NGC 3077 and NGC 2976 to the upper right and upper left respectively, and a few UGCs scattered around too. It's well worth some closer examination of this image and area of the sky.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.

• January 2020 - Picture of the Month

  NGC 2467 in the Constellation of Puppis

  

  We're back to the birth of stars rather than their demise to kick off the New Year, and heading to the southern skies to do it. Just over a degree to the east-south-east of Omicron Puppis you'll find an open cluster, or several, embedded in this spectacular nebula.

  This is another stellar nursery, much beloved of this column, that's no more than a few million years old. Home to three open clusters: Haffner 18, Haffner 19 (both around 6 kpc distant) and the NGC 2467 cluster itself (about 4 kpc away). The Spitzer telescope has found many Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) still shrouded in the dust cloud that makes up the nebula, and is being sculpted by an O6 star in that bright region.

  Distant is tricky as usual. For the open cluster data I've used 'Star Clusters' by Archinal and Hynes. However ESO and Hubble give a distance of 13 kpc, but whether this is to the nebula is unclear. The Hubble image give a fine close up.

  The NGC 2467 nebula is about 15 arc-minutes across and accessible to those with moderately large telescopes and good skies. It was an Object of the Week over at the DeepSkyForum last March.

  James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.