Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula, is an emission nebula located about 1350 ly away in the constellation of Orion.
The very bright star in the image is Alnitak, the easternmost star in Orion's belt.
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
One of the ways we search for objects in the solar system is to take an image, wait for a period of time, then take another image and see what moved.
This GIF animation shows Pluto on two separate nights. See if you can find it.
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Telescopes need to track across the sky to compensate for the Earth's rotation. However, this is often not enough as irregularities in the telescope drive systems can cause tracking errors.
So for long exposures telescopes also have to be guided (nowadays by a computer) to compensate for this. Left image guided, right image unguided.
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
M48 is an open cluster located about 2500 ly away in the constellation of Hydra.
It's about 425 million years old making it middle aged as open clusters go.
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
M59 (right) and M60 (left) are two galaxies located in the Virgo galaxy cluster.
Galaxies tend to be in clusters and the Virgo cluster is a large nearby one. The image spans about 8 deg and has about 13 visible galaxies in it. The second image marks the galaxies.
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
Alnitak, the bright star in the image, is the easternmost star (on the left from the N hemisphere) of Orion's belt and is about 1260 ly away.
Just behind it at about 1360 ly are the Flame and Horsehead nebulae. Both are part of the muc larger molecular cloud known as the Orion Complex.
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
M49 is an elliptical galaxy located about 56 Mly away in the constellation of Virgo.
M49 is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It is the most luminous member of that cluster.
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father. I wrote a book once: http://evl.link/df
M82 is a spiral galaxy located about 12 Mly away in the constellation of Ursa Major.
Considered a starburst galaxy, M82 is undergoing massive amounts of star formation. This is likely due to the gas and dust in the galaxy being compressed by tidal forces from nearby M81.