M17 The Omega Nebula, RC12.5" @f6, ST8E camera, five 2 minute L exposures, five 2 minute RGB. Taken at Sunglow, AZ. March 2003

NGC 7635 "Bubble Nebula" RC 12.5 @ f6, ST8E camera five 3 min. L, five each 3 min RGB. Color is not corrected. Taken at Sunglow AZ. March 2003.

M8 The Lagoon Nebula

RC12.5", @ f6, ST8 Camera. Five 3 min. L, Five 3 min RGB. Taken in March 2003 Sunglow Ranch, AZ.

NGC 891 Edge-on spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. RC12.5 @ f9 Six 4 min L, Five 4 min RG, 8 4 min B. Taken May 2003 from FlatIron, AZ.

The Dumbbell Nebula M27 Taken 5/20/03 with RC 12.5" f4.5 SBIG ST8E, CF8, five 5 min LRGB

Ghost of Jupiter. NGC 3242. Planetary Nebula in Hydra. Taken 5/20/03 with RC 12.5" f4.5 SBIG ST8E, CF8, five 5 min LRGB

Barnard 33, the Horsehead Nebula Taken 1/07/03, with RC 12.5" f4.5 SBIG ST8E, CF8, five 5 min LRGB

Comet Ikeya-Zhang (Taken with RC 12.5") On 4/14/02 with with RC 12.5" f4.5 SBIG ST8E, Five 180 sec. exposures.

Comet Ikeya-Zhang (Taken with 4" refractor) on 4/15/02, Six 3 min exposures with SBIG ST8E in Luminus.

Sombrero" galaxy M104 (NGC 4594) in Virgo. Taken with RC 12.5" f6, on 1/07/03 from Sunglow AZ. Six 180 sec. exposures in luminus with SBIG ST8E.

M13, also called the `Great globular cluster in Hercules'

Taken 1/07/03 at SunGlow, AZ. with RC 12.5" f6, ST8E, five 180 sec. luminus.

M1, The Crab Nebula Taken 2/24/03 at Flatiron with RC12.5" f6, Six 240 sec. LRGB with ST8E, & CW8. The color is not correct.

M31 The Andromedia Galaxy, taken 1/07/03 at SunGlow, AZ. with 4" Borg refractor & ST8E. Five 180 sec. exposures

M33 The Triangulum galaxy taken 1/7/03 at Sunglow, AZ with 4" f8 William Yang refractor, ST8E, CW8, Six 300 sec. LRGB.

M51Whirlpool galaxy, taken 1/07/03 at Sunglow, AZ. with RC 12.5" f6, ST8E, CW8, five 300 sec. LRGB.

M57 The Ring nebula, taken 5/20/03 by Flagstaff, AZ. with RC 12.5" f6, Six 300 sec. LRGB, ST8E, CW8

M5 Globular cluster, taken 5/20/03 near Flagstaff, AZ. with RC 12.5" f6, four 180 sec. RGB with ST8E, CW8

M8, The Lagon nebula, taken 7/10/03 with 4" f8 William Yang refractor, ST8E, five 180 sec. exposures.

Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) was shot with RC 12.5" f/6 at Sunglow, AZ. on 10/29/03 with ST8E, five 3 min of each LRGB.

Explanation: The Omega Nebula contains glowing gas dark dust, and some large massive star. Also known as the M17 and the Swan Nebula, the Omega Nebula is about 5000 light-years away, 20 light-years across, and visiable with binoculars in the constellation of Sagittarius A recent epoch of star formation has created some very massive stars that haven't yet had time to self-destruct. Until then, these stars appear very bright and emit light so energetic it breaks up the surrounding dust lanes.

The following is the text from the NASA Photo of the Day which featured a new Hubble image:

Explanation: What created this huge space bubble? A massive star that is not only bright and blue, but also emitting a fast stellar wind of ionized gas . The Bubble Nebula is actually the smallest of three bubbles surrounding massive star BD+602522, and part of gigantic bubble network S162 created with the help of other massive stars. As fast moving gas expands off BD+602522, it pushes surrounding sparse gas into a shell . The energetic starlight then ionizes the shell, causing it to glow. The above picture taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and released last week shows many details of the Bubble Nebula never seen before and many still not understood. The nebula, also known as NGC 7635 , is about six light-years across and visible with a small telescope towards the constellation of Cassiopeia .

The Lagoon Nebula M8 in Sagittarius is a straightforward emission nebula. It got its name from the shape of the dark lane crossing through the center of it. In M8 a lot of small dark globules, the so-called "Bok globules", which may eventually condense into stars, can be found sprinkled throughout the nebula on photographs. A cluster of young stars which can be seen superimposed on M8 originates from the nebula. The brightest part of M8 is named the hourglass region.

NGC 891 is a fine edge-on spiral with a faint dust lane along its equator. According to Admiral Smyth, it is another discovery of Caroline Herschel, who found it in August, 1783. Her brother William Herschel cataloged it as H V.19.

This planetary nebula is certainly the most impressive object of its kind in the sky, as the angular diameter of the luminous body is nearly 6 arc minutes, with a faint halo extensing out to over 15', half the apparent diameter of the Moon. It is also among the brightest, being at most little less luminous with its estimated apparent visual magnitude 7.4 than the brightest, the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) in Aquarius, with 7.3, which however has a much lower surface brightness because of its larger extension (estimates from Stephen Hynes); it is a bit unusual that this planetary is only little fainter photographically (mag 7.6).

NGC 3242, the "Ghost of Jupiter" nebula, is a very small but rather bright planetary Nebula. Its apparent size is in a telescope is equivalent to Jupiter. It is visible from light-polluted areas. High magnification and steady skies are needed to see the details of the "eye" (it has also been called the "Eye Nebula").

The remarkable Horsehead is a dark globule of dust and non-luminous gas, obscuring the light coming from behind, especially the moderately bright nebula IC 434. It is the most remarkable feature of an interesting region of diffuse nebulae, which belongs to a huge cloud of gas and dust situated 1,600 light years away in the direction of constellation Orion. The bright reflection nebula in the lower left is NGC 2023

Summary: In Early March 2002, Comet Ikeya-Zhang became a naked-eye fuzzball in the evening sky. It soon brightened to 3rd magnitude and delighted sky watchers with its remarkable photogenic tail. The comet even had a stunning close encounter with the Andromeda Galaxy. But all good things must come to an end. On April 30th, Ikeya-Zhang made its closest approach to Earth (0.41 AU) and since then has been receding toward the outer solar system.

Summary: In Early March 2002, Comet Ikeya-Zhang became a naked-eye fuzzball in the evening sky. It soon brightened to 3rd magnitude and delighted sky watchers with its remarkable photogenic tail. The comet even had a stunning close encounter with the Andromeda Galaxy. But all good things must come to an end. On April 30th, Ikeya-Zhang made its closest approach to Earth (0.41 AU) and since then has been receding toward the outer solar system

The well-known "Sombrero" galaxy M104 (NGC 4594) in Virgo. This is an excellent example of the early-type Sa spirals, with tightly-wound spiral arms (in fact, they can be difficult to trace when seen this close to edge-on) and a large-luminous bulge. The dense dust lane in this disk gives the galaxy its common name.

At its distance of 25,100 light years, its angular diameter of 20' corresponds to a linear 145 light years - visually, it is perhaps 13' large. It contains several 100,000 stars; Timothy Ferris in his book Galaxies even says "more than a million". Towards its center, stars are about 500 times more concentrated than in the solar neighborhood

"Nebula above the southern horn of Taurus, it doesn't contain any star; it is a whitish light, elongated in the shape of a flame of a candle, discovered while observing the comet of 1758. See the chart of that comet, Mem. Acad. of the year 1759, page 188; observed by Dr. Bevis in about 1731. It is reported on the English Celestial Atlas."

M31 is a large spiral galaxy, very similar in appearance to, and slightly larger than, our own Galaxy, and our closest normal-galaxy companion (the very close Magellanic clouds are classified as irregular galaxies). In fact, from a distant vantage point, Andromeda and the Galaxy would appear as a pair, a binary or double galaxy system, if it were not for the rather smaller, though still significant, spiral galaxy M33. As our nearest neighbor, Andromeda is extremely large on the sky. This picture extends for over two and a quarter degrees, or more than four times the width of the full moon, and still does not include the full extent of M31

The spiral galaxy M33 is a mid-sized member of our Local Group of galaxies. M33 is also called the Triangulum Galaxy for the constellation in which it resides. About four times smaller (in radius) than our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromedia Galaxy (M31).

M51 is the dominating member of a small group of galaxys. As it is about 37 million light years distant and so conspicuous, it is actually a big and luminous galaxy. The value of M51's (and the whole group's) distance is still not very well known

The famous ring nebula M57 is often regarded as the prototype of a planetary nebula, and a showpiece in the northern hemisphere summer sky. Recent research has confirmed that it is, most probably, actually a ring (torus) of bright light-emitting material surrounding its central star, and not a spherical (or ellipsoidal) shell, thus coinciding with an early assumption by John Herschel. Viewed from this equatorial plane, it would thus more resemble the Dumbbell Nebula M27 or the Little Dumbbell Nebula M76 than its appearance we know from here: We happen to view it from near one pole.

Under very good viewing conditions, M5 can just be glimpsed with the naked eye. The globular cluster is easily visible as small fuzzy patch in good binoculars, and a fine round "nebula" in 3-inch telescopes, brighter toward the center. Starting with 4-inch, its brightest stars, of mag 12.2, can just be resolved; they form curved patterns extending from the central part which John Mallas found suggesting a spider; one of the "legs" extending far southward, the halo extending to a diameter of over 10'. Larger telescopes or photographs reveal a spectacular sight with thousands of stars, a few less populated gaps, and the halo extending to over 15' diameter

M8 is situated in a very conspicuous field of the Sagittarius Milky, in the field is also the young open cluster NGC6530.

Explanation: After 5,000 years, the gorgeousVeil Nebula is still turning heads. Cataloged as NGC 6992, these glowing filaments of interstellar shocked gas are part of a larger spherical supernova remnent known as the Cygnus Loop or the Veil Nebula -- expanding debris from a star which exploded over 5,000 years ago. This color digital image of a bit of the Veil has been processed and enhanced to reveal stunning details in the diaphanous cosmic cloud. Seen from our perspective against a rich Milky Way star field, the Veil Nebula is