Explore the depths of October’s deep sky with these amazing photos taken by photographers and friends of EarthSky. You, too, can spot the Orion and Flame nebulas in Orion and the Heart and Soul Nebulas in Cassiopeia from dark-sky locations.
Heart and Soul nebulas
These beautiful nebulas lie in the constellation Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia is an easy-to-spot constellation in the shape of the letter W. The Heart Nebula is sometimes called the Running Dog Nebula. What does this star-forming region look like to you?
The Ghost of Cassiopeia
The perfect spooky scene for an October evening, the Ghost of Cassiopeia is a cloud of gas and dust radiating by the light of a variable star. The Ghost lies 550 light-years away near the central star in the W-shape of Cassiopeia.
Bottom line: EarthSky readers shared amazing deep-sky photographs with us. The Helix Nebula in Aquarius, Orion and Flame nebulas in Orion, and Heart and Soul nebulas in Cassiopeia and more are great observing targets for October.
Kelly Kizer Whitt has been a science writer specializing in astronomy for more than two decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine, and she has made regular contributions to AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club, among other outlets. Her children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, was published in 2012. She has also written a young adult dystopian novel titled A Different Sky. When she is not reading or writing about astronomy and staring up at the stars, she enjoys traveling to the national parks, creating crossword puzzles, running, tennis, and paddleboarding. Kelly lives in Wisconsin.
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