The Tarantula Nebula

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The Tarantula Nebula

[Public Domain] 10 May 2015 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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Now that summer is over the nights are crisp and dry, and for most of this week there have been clear, still, blue skies all day. Which means lovely dark skies at night and more chances for me to image a fresh batch of new stuff coming into view from my backyard.

This nebula is a long, long way away. 160,000 light years which is probably too big to think about. If it were as close to earth as the Orion (M42) Nebula from our own galaxy, it would cast shadows here.

In 1987, a bright flash in the outer region suddenly appeared as a star died (went supernova) that was the first time scientists could observe such an event as it happened. It was so bright, it was visible to the naked eye.

28 x 180s exposures @ F2 (Hyperstar3) / Celestron 9.25″ Edge HD (Total integration time 84 minutes)

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