View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Abdul Thomas of Leeds, UK, used a large remote telescope in Chile to capture these beautiful dust and gas clouds lit by forming stars. These bright regions – called bright nebulae – are embedded with a dark molecular cloud, located in the direction to our constellation Corona Australis the Southern Crown. See the lower left of this image? It’s not a region empty of stars. It’s a vast dark cloud that blocks the light of stars located behind it. Thank you, Abdul! See more of the editor’s picks from January’s deep-sky photos here.
Stunning deep-sky photos from our community
The EarthSky community has many talented astrophotographers who capture stunning images of the deep sky. So enjoy this gallery of some of the best deep-sky photos we received in January 2024. Do you have some of your own deep-sky images to share? You can submit them to us here. We love to see them!
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Catherine Hyde in Cambria, California, captured the Heart and Soul Nebulae, in the constellation Cassiopeia, on January 8, 2024. Catherine wrote: “Both are quite large. I’ve never been able to frame them together in one image before.” Thank you, Catherine!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steven Bellavia in Southold, New York, captured the reflection nebula Messier 78 in the constellation Orion, on January 8, 2024. Steven wrote: “M78, not far from the easternmost (left) star of Orion’s belt, Alnitak, is one of my favorite objects to observe and image. M78 is the brightest reflection nebula in our sky. Two stars are responsible for making the cloud of dust in M78 visible.” Thank you, Steven!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Tameem Altameemi in the Ras Al Khaimah Mountains, United Arab Emirates (UAE), captured the Dolphin Head Nebula, in the constellation Canis Major, on January 5, 2024. Tameem wrote: “The Dolphin Head Nebula (which really looks like its namesake) lies about 5,200 light-years away. The massive star itself, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright blue one near the center of the nebula. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula, as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years.” Thank you, Tameem!
The Jellyfish Nebula
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Karrar Mohammed in Alkut, Iraq, captured the Jellyfish Nebula, in the constellation Gemini, on January 17, 2024. Karrar wrote: “The Jellyfish Nebula may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 30,000 to 35,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created a neutron star – the collapsed remnant of the stellar core – that is traveling away from the site at 500,000 mph (800,000 km/h). The Jellyfish Nebula is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds.” Thank you, Karrar!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Tameem Altameemi in the Ras Al Khaimah Mountains, United Arab Emirates (UAE), also captured the Jellyfish Nebula, on January 13, 2024. Tameem wrote: “The Jellyfish Nebula lies at an approximate distance of 5,000 light-years from Earth with an apparent magnitude of 12. The nebula lies between the stars Mu and Eta Geminorum, at the foot of one of the celestial Twins.” Thank you, Tameem!
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Catherine Hyde in Cambria, California, captured these nebulae in Orion on January 5, 2024. Catherine wrote: “This is essentially first light on my new Redcat 51 scope, the smallest scope I’ve ever had. The short focal length allowed me to frame the belt and sword of Orion in one image. Included are the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae, and the iconic Orion Nebula with the Running Man above it.” Thank you, Catherine!
The Pleiades star cluster
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jeremy Likness in Newport Oregon, captured the Pleiades star cluster on January 16, 2024. Jeremy wrote: “Can’t get enough of these winter sapphires.” Thank you, Jeremy!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Harshwardhan Pathak of India, using a large remote telescope in Chile, captured this detailed view of the Pleiades on January 18, 2024. Harshwardhan wrote: “The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45, is an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot stars in the northwest of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light-years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth. It is the nearest Messier object to Earth and the most obvious cluster to the unaided eye in the night sky.” Thank you, Harshwardhan!
Deep-sky photos of galaxies
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Andrea Iorio in Rome, Italy, captured the galaxy Messier 82 on January 23, 2023. Andrea wrote: “The beautiful starburst galaxy M82 lies in the constellation Ursa Major. German Astronomer Johann Elert Bode discovered it in 1774. M82 is undergoing a huge amount of star formation in its core, possibly due to gravitational interactions with the close neighboring galaxy, M81.” Thank you, Andrea!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steven Bellavia in Mattituck, New York, assembled this impressive composite of the Andromeda Galaxy on January 27, 2024. Steven wrote: “With all the bad weather lately, I decided to take my last 2 years of data on M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and put it all together, for a total of 57 hours. The star-forming regions appear as small red ‘knots’ in and beyond the spiral arms, and the collections of young, hot blue stars appear as blue regions. The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way, about 2.5 million light-years from Earth.” Thank you, Steven!
Bottom line: Enjoy this gallery of deep-sky photos for January 2024 from our EarthSky community. And if you have a great photo to share, send it in. We love to see them!
Armando is well known as an astronomy educator, after 30+ years leading extensive initiatives of public outreach and 10+ years teaching in colleges. As one of only a handful of Puerto Rican science communicators during Comet Halley's last visit, he assumed a pioneering role starting in 1985 when science was just beginning to enter the local mindset; over time his work brought meaningful change to the culture, inspiring people to pursue interests in science and technology. His affiliations include Ana G. Méndez University–Cupey, where in 2014 he spearheaded an 8-course extension program focusing on observational astronomy, the first ever in the island.
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