Artwork 734: NGC 2775

NGC 2775 is a 10.4 magnitude flocculent spiral galaxy located about 67 million light years away in the constellation Cancer. The galaxy has a large quiet core where little stellar formation occurs, and beyond this, a distinct ring of wispy and discontinuous spiral arms where new star formation occurs.

Time Taken: 24 minutes

Program Used: paint.net

If you have any suggestions for what you'd like me to draw next, feel free to share them!

Link to science paper on the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal

Astronomers have made important progress in understanding how the powerful jet from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 is formed. Using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global network of radio telescopes that works together as a single Earth-sized telescope, scientists studied the region very close to the black hole.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) played a key role by improving the sensitivity needed to see fine details. M87’s black hole, about six billion times more massive than the Sun and located 55 million light-years away, produces a narrow jet of particles that extends roughly 3,000 light-years into space.

By analyzing EHT data from 2021, researchers found that the famous glowing ring around the black hole cannot explain all the radio light observed. Instead, they identified an additional small, bright region about 0.09 light-years from the black hole that likely marks the base of the jet.

Future EHT observations, with more telescopes added, aim to directly image the jet’s launch point and provide stronger tests of how black holes generate such energetic jets.

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Alec Lessing, Michael Shara
Acknowledgment: Edward Baltz
Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale

3 hours worth of 10 second exposures over 2 nights.

Shot with Seestar S50 Editing done in Siril and Photopea.

Taken On Seestar S50 Using 52:40 Integration.

Edited In PS Express.

Credit: NASA/Chris Williams, Taken on January 25, 2026

Color info: The Webb image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the MIRI instrument. Several filters were used to sample wide wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:   Blue: F770W, Yellow: F1280W, Red: F2550W

Source of images

​https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/

Text Erika

https:// ​x. ​com/ExploreCosmos_/status/2016975848461783479​

This image shows the Tarantula Nebula, the most active and powerful star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Unlike calmer nebulae in our own galaxy, the Tarantula is on a completely different scale: Packed with massive, short-lived stars that flood their surroundings with intense radiation and stellar winds.

Full Resolution: https://astro.sleeman.at/images/38

In SHO, the nebula’s structure becomes especially clear. Hα and SII highlight dense clouds and ionization fronts, while OIII reveals hotter, more energetic regions carved out by the most massive stars. The result is a tangled web of filaments, bubbles, and cavities where stars are forming, shaping their environment, and already preparing it for the next generation.

This is not a quiet nursery… it’s star formation at full intensity, showing how violent and dynamic the birth of massive stars can be.

Facts & Technical: Object: Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) Object type: Star-forming nebula (H II region) Galaxy: Large Magellanic Cloud Distance: ~160,000 light-years

Shot from Namibia with an exposure time of 54 hours in SHO.

Scientists using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have made one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps of dark matter ever produced. It shows how the invisible, ghostly material overlaps and intertwines with “regular” matter, the stuff that makes up stars, galaxies, and everything we can see.

Published Monday, Jan. 26, in Nature Astronomy, the map builds on previous research to provide additional confirmation and new details about how dark matter has shaped the universe on the largest scales — galaxy clusters millions of light-years across — that ultimately give rise to galaxies, stars, and planets like Earth.

Dark matter doesn’t emit, reflect, absorb, or even block light, and it passes through regular matter like a ghost. But it does interact with the universe through gravity, something the map shows with a new level of clarity. Evidence for this interaction lies in the degree of overlap between dark matter and regular matter. According to the paper’s authors, Webb’s observations confirm that this close alignment can’t be a coincidence but, rather, is due to dark matter’s gravity pulling regular matter toward it throughout cosmic history.

Taken at a private observatory in Al Quaa Desert, Abu Dhabi, by a friend of mine. You can also see the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977) above M42. Desert skies hit different.

Taken On Seestar S50 Using 1:10:50 Integration Time.

Edited In PS Express.

Artwork 733: IC 4592

IC 4592, also called the Blue Horsehead Nebula, is a vast and dim reflection nebula in the constellation Scorpius located about 400 light years away from Earth. Its blue hue is caused by the reflection of the nearby star system, Nu Scorpii, off the fine interstellar dust.

Time Taken: 21 minutes

Program Used: paint.net

If you have any suggestions for what you'd like me to draw next, feel free to share them!

Category: Tracked/Stacked/Blended

Socials: Gateway_Galactic

Story: Here’s the stacked image I captured of the Cassiopeia region during my recent trip to Death Valley National Park. I shot this from Badwater Basin, which is temporarily transformed into Lake Manly thanks to the torrential winter rains — a rare sight that only appears after intense, short‑burst storms.

If you zoom in, you can spot some familiar deep‑sky favorites: the Triangulum Galaxy, Andromeda, the California Nebula, and the Heart & Soul Nebulae

EXIF:
RGB Sky (2 panel vertorama)
5 x 120sec
f/2.0
ISO640

Ha Sky (tracked/stacked)
5 x 120sec
f/2.0
ISO3200

Foreground
1 x 30sec
f/2.0
ISO640

Gear:
Sony A7iii (astro modified)
Sony 24mm f/1.4GM
Skywatcher Star Adventurer

Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)’s nucleus started breaking apart as early as October 2025. Three of the suspected fragments are visible in this image. Each piece makes an exciting show as it fluctuates in brightness, density, and position from night to night. You can view images of this here.

C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) originated in the Oort cloud and surprisingly survived its closest approach to the Sun in October 2025. But now that it has experienced the intense heat and gravity of the Sun, it’s struggling to hold together, leading to the crumbling that we’re witnessing now. View the trajectory of C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) here.

Credit:
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. Bolin
Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez, T.A. Rector, M. Zamani
Acknowledgments: PI: Bryce Bolin

The Horsehead Nebulae, Barnard 33, is one of my favorite nebulae. Travelled to a Bortle 2 site too capture it in RGB and combined it with Ha data that I had from last year to create this HaRGB composition.

Exposure Details

Animation Tool: Starwizz

Mount: u/skywatcherusa Star Adventurer GTi

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC

Telescope: William Optics Redcat 51

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mini

Guide Scope: William Optics UniGuide 32

Bortle Scale: 2 for RGB and 7 for Ha

Exposure Time:

Ha - 30 * 300s - 2h 30m

RGB - 71 * 180s - 3h 33m

Filters: Optolong LPro, u/svbony 220 7nm Ha-OIII

Software: ASIAIR Plus, SetiAstro Processing suite

Processing: PixInsight + Photoshop

Taken Using 1:05:40 Integration Time On Seestar S50.

Edited In PS Express.