Nota Bene

A beautiful and complex nebula that invites further investigation.

If you point your telescope at the Christmas Tree Nebula (NGC 2264), you will be looking across our spiral arm of the galaxy towards an adjacent outer arm. As the name suggests, there is a nebula here that resembles the shape of a conifer, but this beautiful and complex region has so much more. It is 2,700 light years distance, which is tiny on the scale of our galaxy but almost a million times more distant than the edge of our solar system.

Some places are seriously investigated, yet prominent areas seem neglected by researchers. We will focus on three regions:

The pink nebula at the centre.

The tiny triangular sprite at the upper-right corner.

The prominent dark “V” shaped region at the centre-left.

There is a sea of pink in this picture, but our focus is drawn to the texture of ripples and folds at the centre. “15 Monocerotis” is a cluster of hot young stars at the centre that energizes the nearby hydrogen and helium. To the right of the cluster, is the Cone Nebula, its distinctive shape the result of our perspective: there is colder molecular hydrogen and dust in the foreground.

This tiny triangular sprite was studied by Edwin Hubble at the Yerkes Observatory, and the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories using images from 1916-1949. Amateur astronomers have recently confirmed “light ripples” over a short period of time. One explanation is that it is reflecting light from the central 15 Monocerotis Cluster, and drifting dust is casting a faint shadow on it.

A large “V” shaped dark outline dominates the left side of this photo. It is unlikely to be an empty space because other stars from the adjacent spiral arm would appear in the background. As it is not illuminated, we can reasonably assume that it is sufficiently in the foreground to not be energized by the powerful 15 Monocerotis Cluster at the centre.

To my surprise, not much information is readily available about this prominent dark area, and these explanations are mere speculation. I understand that it is in an obscure catalog as “Schoenberg 205-206”.

I photographed the Christmas Tree Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on two evening in March 2026, and three evenings in March and February 2025. This final image was built from 210 photos, where each was a 3 minute exposure (10 hours of photography).

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight + WBPP + MAS

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A nearby nebula illuminated by a runaway star

The Flaming Star Nebula is a nearby interstellar dust cloud illuminated by a star that is hurtling through our region of the galaxy. The star at the centre, AE Aurigae, is a “Runaway Star” that was ejected from the intense Trapezium area of the Orion Nebula when several binary stars collided two million years ago.

This visiting star now brightly illuminates the centre of the nebula, but its arrival created a shock wave that thrusted the gas and dust in a sweeping arc, visible across the bottom of the image.

The brightly illuminated area is only about 5 light years in diameter, certainly very small on a galactic scale. However, it is 1,000 times larger than our entire solar system.

I photographed the Flaming Star Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on two evening in March 2026. This final image was built from 140 photos, where each was a 3 minute exposure (7 hours of photography).

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight + WBPP + MAS

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator 

The star Zeta Persei is the enormous powerhouse for this breathtaking scene.

This beautiful pink nebula resides 1,000 light-years towards the outer edge of our spiral arm of the galaxy. It is about 100 light-years in length, which is tiny in the full scale of our galaxy, but this nebula is 36,000 times larger than our solar system.

It acquired the name “California Nebula”, because it resembles the coastline of the state, but also because the contours of the billowing pink clouds remind us of the mountains and valleys of California.

The ionizing of galactic hydrogen gas causes this predominant pink colour. The bright star at the upper-right, Zeta Persei, bathes the nebula with intense light, and what enormous energy it provides! It is 30 times larger than our sun and 12,000 times more powerful.

This image is a composite of 84 photos where each was a 5 minute exposure (7 hours). I photographed the California Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on two evenings in February 2026.

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight  + WBPP + MAS

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator 

The magnificent Orion Nebula: The Queen of the Winter Sky. At a distance of only 1,300 light years, consider it nearby on a galactic scale, but distant and huge compared to our tiny solar system.  It is the closest region of intense star formation, and what a show it provides! 

The upper part of the photo reveals a prominent rosebud shape, framed in a diffuse cyan cloud. Below this, there is a much smaller and denser pink cloud with dark streaks, resembling a knotted cravat.

Bridging these regions is a narrow connecting gap of wispy coloured clouds. Above it, the intense white core with the grainy pink “Trapezium” almost enclosed. This is the energetic source of the Orion Nebula. Note that the stars inside the Trapezium are apart on the scale of the distances to our nearest stars.

The colours are revealing: hydrogen is red, oxygen is blue. However, on the right side, there is definitely a green cloud. This colour, only recently understood, is from a complex two-step energizing of the nearby oxygen. 

I photographed the Orion Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on two nights: in December 2025 and February 2024. This is a composite of 126 images where each was a 60 second exposure. 

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

Seti Astro Suite

The Triangulum Galaxy is a prominent member of our local cluster of galaxies. At three million light years distance, it is considered quite close compared to most other galaxies.

While it clearly has a pinwheel shape, like our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy appears faint and sparse, even grungy. We fail to see the familiar well-defined spiral arms originating at a dense core with red star-forming regions along the spines. Instead, the photo reveals a vague structure with some prominent red star-forming pockets, thin red veins and dark discolorations chaotically dispersed like so-many skin blemishes.

I photographed the Triangulum Galaxy from my garden in Strasbourg France on four nights: November 22, 2025, November 11, 2025, December 27, 2024 and October 6, 2024. This is an ensemble of 205 images, where each is a three minute exposure (over 10 hours of total exposure).

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Skywatcher Quattro 150/600

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Pro

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

NGC 7380 has the colloquial name “The Wizard Nebula” because many see the jagged profile of a wizard, and his hat, in the sharp ridges of gas and dust. For me, the colour and shape reminds me of a red leaf from a maple tree in autumn, curled on the edges.

The Wizard Nebula is situated on an adjacent arm of our Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of only 8,500 light years from earth. Note: It is about 40 light years in size, whereas, our solar system in only 1 light-DAY in radius. So, do the math: 40 x 365‎ = 14 600. Its size is more than 14 000 times greater than the size of our solar system.

It is far too faint to be viewed unaided. Even with an amateur telescope, you are unlikely to see any details with just your eyes. Amateur astrophotographers love it, because it demonstrates the beauty of distant objects that can only be seen via long patient imaging, and skilled post-processing.

I photographed the Wizard Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on two nights in October 2025. This is an ensemble of 125 photos, where each was a 3 minute exposure (6 hours of photography).

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Skywatcher Quattro 150/600

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Pro

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

NGC-281 is a beautiful emission nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Several decades ago, it acquired a colloquial name: “the Pac-Man Nebula” because it resembled a round face with an open mouth, similar to a colloquial video arcade character. Very soon, absolutely nobody will understand this reference. We need a timeless reference for this beautiful emission nebula.

It is a star-forming region nearby in our galaxy at 9,000 light years. It is located in the Perseus Arm of our galaxy, where we also live. Let’s make it relevant.

I asked ChatGPT to help me suggest alternate timeless names for this beautiful emission nebula. The name should reflect these aspects:

The colours of the nebula

The shape of the nebula

Since it is located in the constellation of Cassiopeia, it should reference the story of this mythical person: a very vain queen.

Here are the suggestions from ChatGPT:

The Crimson Mirror Nebula – Evokes Cassiopeia’s vanity and the nebula’s deep red hydrogen glow.

The Scarlet Pride Nebula - Ties directly to her arrogance, with the regal red tone.

The Shattered Mirror Nebula - The nebula’s “bite” shape feels like a broken mirror, symbolizing vanity undone.

The Blush of Cassiopeia - More poetic; a softer, timeless name suggesting eternal vanity.

The Vanity Nebula - The simplest and most direct, making the myth accessible to anyone.

Now, here is your challenge: Suggest a timeless, relevant, name for this beautiful nebula.

I captured this image of NGC-281 from my garden in Strasbourg France on 2 nights: 90 images x 3 minutes from September 2025 and 24 images x 3 minutes from December 2023.

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

The Andromeda Galaxy has a similar size and structure as our own galaxy. Its proximity, 2.5 million light-years, makes it easier to investigate than others more distant. The similarity helps us understand the colourful regions of gas and dust that we see up-close and nearby in our own galaxy.

We keep returning to photograph this target because it is beautiful, intriguing and certainly iconic. My goal this year is to combine new images with those previous to reveal the structure and locations of star-forming regions (H II regions) in the Andromeda Galaxy. Many of my photos are of star-forming regions nearby in our own galaxy. They fill my images with a brilliant pink tapestry. Seeing these regions from a distance helps us understand their overall structure. We find the telltale pink regions on the spines of the spiral arms.

This is an ensemble of 310 photos where each was a 3 minutes exposure (15 hours of astrophotography over 3 years). I combined 80 recent images with 160 images from autumn 2024, both sets using the Optolong L-Pro filter to create an interim image that captures the fine details. I then photographically merged this detailed image with a different image from 2022 that used the Optolong L-Enhance filter to reveal the locations of pink-coloured star-forming regions on the spines of the spiral arms (70 images combined in autumn 2022).

I photographed the Andromeda Galaxy from my garden in Strasbourg France on five nights over three years, 2025, 2024, 2022.

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Pro, Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

The Veil Nebula is interstellar debris from a star that exploded 15,000 years ago. This photo captures the leading shockwave as it continues to expand.

Often call the “the “Cygnus Loop”, the massive entire debris field is generally circular and viewed in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan, at only 2,400 light years.

In this photo, we are looking at only the outer edge of the Cygnus Loop debris field facing towards the west.

The French have a beautiful name for this nebula: “Les Dentelles du Cygne”, or “the Lace of the Swan”.

A “Supernova” explosion occurs when an older star depletes fuel and falters at generating an adequately strong outward “push” to compensate for an increasing inward “pull” of gravity. The star then collapses in an explosion of truly cosmic scale.

The photo below is a close-up, with colour and contrast greatly exaggerated. You can see here that as the shockwave moves outward (upward in the photo), it is causing ripples and compression waves in the interstellar dust that it is encountering.

I photographed the Western Veil Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on two nights: This is an ensemble of 80 photos from August 2024, and an additional 80 images from August 2025. Each was a 3 minute exposure: (8 hours of astrophotography over 2 years).

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Pro

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

NGC-7000 is an immense area of dust and hot hydrogen gas viewed in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. It has the colloquial name “the North America Nebula”, because the outline resembles the Gulf of Mexico.

The telltale pink colour reveals it as a region of star formation, with a very intense area called the “Cygnus Wall”, seen here at the right. The contrasting dark regions are part of the “Cygnus Fissure”, a band of interstellar dust in our arm of the galaxy.

The distance to NGC-7000 is 2,600 light-years and spans 140 light-years. The Cygnus Wall is only 20 light-years long, but this is 3600 times longer than the diameter of our solar system.

The Bubble Nebula appears at the very centre of the wide-field image below. It is actually a shock wave of gas and dust pushed outward by a powerful star 45X the size of our sun at the centre.

Surrounding the Bubble Nebula are pink molecular clouds of hydrogen, but oxygen also appears as blue, with nitrogen as green, resulting in an unusual teal coloured background.

At a distance of only 7,000 light-years, consider it nearby on a galactic scale of 100,000 light-years. This tiny bubble is a mere 6 light-years across. However, this is 1000X larger than the 2 light-DAYS span of our tiny solar system (6x365/2 = 1095 times larger than our solar system)

Nearby star-forming regions, like NGC 7822, are exciting places to explore with a backyard telescope. The signature pink colour confirms the abundance of billowing hot hydrogen that will, in time, coalesce under gravity to form stars. There are cold dark areas, and pillars of dust that are warming in the heat from nearby protostars.

Summer evenings are an excellent time to explore these exciting places nearby in our galaxy, as many are visible. NGC 7822 is about 3,000 light years distance, and about 75 light years in diameter. Since our solar system is less than 2 light-days in diameter, NGC 7822 is about 13,000 times larger than our solar system (75x366/2).

With the Pelican Nebula, we are revisiting a nearby star-forming region in our galaxy. The predominant pink colour reveals again the telltale presence of energetic hydrogen gas that eventually coalesces under gravity into stars. However, there are also colder dark and opaque regions clearly defined in this complex image.

In the close-up photo, we see fantastic long tendrils of colder gas sculpted by energetic radiation from a nearby protostar. To help understand how this happens, consider how long icicles are formed on a rooftop by warm sunlight and gravity in winter.

The Pelican Nebula reveals the complexity of star formation, from cold and dark gas clouds to hot young protostars, but, at 2,000 light years, the size, distance and timescale remain challenging for us to grasp.

The Cocoon Nebula has a distinctive round and fuzzy shape, and a brilliant red colour. Because of this location, shape and colour, it has the beautifully appropriate name: “The Ruby Jewel of Cygnus”.

It is situated nearby in our Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of only 4,000 light-years and is just 15 light-years in diameter. Keep in mind that a radio message to the Voyager-1 probe at the far edge of our solar system takes 1 day (1 light-day distance from Earth). So, with a width of 15 light-YEARS, the Cocoon Nebula is 5,475 times larger than our solar system (15 years x 365 days).

It is the goal of astrophotographers to render the streaks and ripples at the centre, as well as the faint pale cloud visible at the edges.

The “Pillars of Creation” refers to elongated shapes of gas and dust at the very centre of this photo, the Eagle Nebula (Messier-16). The name was popularized by the Hubble Space Telescope that provided spectacular pictures of it.

This name seems almost mystical, a surprising choice considering the scientific community that named it. However, this is where new stars are created, and the name reminds us that areas with an abundance of hot hydrogen will eventually create stars. We know that this is a star-forming region because of the predominant pink colour, captured and emphasized via a hydrogen-enhance filter attached to my camera. With the Pillars of Creation, we gain some insight into what must happen before the hydrogen coalesces into stars.

The entire Eagle Nebula is 70x50 light-years in size and is only 6,000 light years distance from us, so consider it nearby on a galactic scale of 100,000 light-years. The Pillars of Creation, at the centre, are only 5-6 light-years in size. So, keep in mind that a message to the Voyager-1 probe, now well past the edge of our Solar System, takes 1 day (1 light-day away). So, the Pillars of Creation (5-6 light YEARS in size) are immense compared to our tiny solar system.

With the Whirlpool Galaxy, we are witnessing two galaxies in the process of colliding. In this image, we can see the dense core of a smaller galaxy colliding with the extended arm of its larger counterpart.

It is certainly difficult to grasp the epic scale of this encounter because it is a distant 23 million light years away, and, to our fleeting lifespan, nothing seems to change. However, we do notice the distortion in the spiral arms, and, at the point of impact, we see what looks like a “debris field”, as the gravitational forces of this epic encounter slowly rip apart the main spiral arm of the larger galaxy.

The Whirlpool Galaxy is a favourite target for amateurs, because it is big, bright, detailed and has an apparent size suitable for most backyard telescopes. The challenge is to capture the faint cloud of dust and gas at the point of collision.

Globular clusters are tight spherical grouping of stars that reside above or below the dense plane of our Milky Way galaxy. They contain several hundred thousand stars in a tight spherical shape which is bound together by strong gravitational forces.

The Great Globular Cluster of Hercules is a favourite for amateur astrophotographers because it is bright, detailed and has an apparent size suitable for most backyard telescopes. Its brightness makes it easy to photograph, but processing the final image requires special considerations. The thousands of stars are so densely populated that most amateur astrophotographers struggle to sufficiently resolve the smaller and fainter stars of the cluster.

While it does reside away from the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, its distance of 22,000 light years is considered nearby on a galactic scale of 100,000 light years. The radius of the globe is measured as 84 light years, which is very small on the scale of our galaxy, but absolutely immense compared to the 1 light day size of our solar system.