Remnants

Crab Nebula; Nov 22, 2022

The year was 1054. Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty reigned in China out of the capital city Kaifeng on the southern banks of the Yellow River. On the 4th of July, at the break of dawn, a bright star burst into view in the sky in the constellation of Taurus. It was so bright, it could be seen during daytime. It remained visible for 23 days during the day.  The star faded slowly over time and on 6 April 1056, 642 days or nearly two years later it disappeared from view. The Chinese wrote about it, as did the Japanese and Arabic astronomers.

Today, a thousand years later, a tenuous wispy cloud is all that remains in place of the progenitor star, now known as the Crab Nebula or Supernova Remnant 1054. 

Orion Revisited

Orion Nebula

Over six years after I first took this image (in 2013), here is another attempt at imaging the Great Orion nebula M42 in the Orion molecular cloud complex.

The first version of this picture was one of my first deep sky imaging attempts using a tripod mounted camera and a telephoto lens without a telescope. This version had the advantage of a 5 inch 1500 mm focal length telescope on a go-to mount and is a composite of 10 images at 20s each. Overall while this is a richer image, the process was a walk in the park compared to my first experience described here.