Street Light Astro

This is a 4-panel mosaic of NGC 1499, commonly known as the California Nebula due to its sharing the same approximate shape as the US State.

Each panel is made up of 3 hours worth of stacked photos, for a combined total of 12 hours of exposure data. The entire project took 3 separate evenings to capture the exposures, and another 2-3 days to fully process.

The California Nebula is located roughly 1000 light years from Earth and would take approximately 100 years to travel from end-to-end if you were moving at the speed of light. NGC 1499 is mainly composed of hydrogen gas that has been ionized by Xi Persei, the bright blue star located just to the upper left of the nebula.

Latest upgrade arrived after a 4 month backorder! Looks like the clouds may clear away just in time to grab a couple shots tonight! (3 year old pictured for scale)

IC1805 - The Heart Nebula

The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula located 7500 light years from Earth. The red glow is made up of ionized hydrogen gas that is being emitted and excited by a cluster of stars located at the "heart" of the nebula. IC1805 was first discovered in November of 1787 by British astronomer and musical composer William Herschel!