James Webb Space Telescope Image of Wolf-Rayet Star WR 125
So I made this video and created an article on What is a Wolf-Rayet Star over at Eadsy Astronomy and uploaded it here. Why? Well one of the things I try to do is educate on the objects that I post observing/imaging programs for.
I have a small program for Wolf-Rayet stars and the shells that surround them. I think it enhances the experience of observing or imaging them if we understand what we are seeing and imaging!
As always, I have a full article on this over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK so head on over and take a look! Thanks!
In this video I share my full post over at Eadsy Astronomy on my observing trip out to Wolf Creek Pass, Duchesne Ridge on the night of August 16th and 17th, 2026. I usually am too busy on a Sunday to head out, but I finished all my needed things that day and it was the one window I had in August.
So I had considered doing Top View/Toon Rd but the forecast went south and Wolf Creek opened up. I absolutely LOVE this site so anytime I can go there I will. I had planned in July to do several nights there but the weather didn't cooperate! Go figure.
So here I share what you'll see if you head over to Eadsy Astronomy. Probably my favorite observing and sketches that I share are Sharpless 2-91, that OTHER Supernova Remnant in Cygnus. Thanks to my good friend Shane I was able to observer for the first time Sharpless 2-94 and 2-96! I also got some planetary nebula so this observing trip has fit right in with some of my posts lately!
For the full report, including additional video of how to get there and of the site with images and my sketches and SeeStar images, please head over to Eadsy Astronomy! LINK
Here is a list of the sketches over at Eadsy Astronomy:
This is a fun summary of the article that shows that the Milky Way hasn't just undergone two mergers with dwarf galaxies; the Sagitarrius Dwarf Galaxy that started over 6 billion years ago and is still ongoing and the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus merger that occurred 10 billion years ago.
Guess what, they now have found a third merger that occurred 11.8 billion years ago which is only 2 billion years after the Big Bang! Come learn more about that merger and how they found it!
My summary article and images are available over at Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK along with a link to the release and my highlights of the article.
Yesterday, I posted a LOT about planetary nebula. I discovered this article/news release from the James Webb Space Telescope Website on NGC 2392 the Lion Nebula. Here they use the NIRCam and MIRI instruments/cameras on the James Webb to image it. The article discusses how all this is being caused by the white dwarf star seen in the center!
Head over to Eadsy Astronomy LINK to see the images from Webb and a link to the news release!
Real cool article on possible ways the moon formed. In the image above (and in their video I shared) they show how the Moon may have formed when a Mars size object that formed relatively close to the Earth in the protoplanetary disc, so they had the similar composition, resulted in material being blasted around the Earth that later formed into the Moon. OR if the protoEarth and the Theia object were of the same temperture basically, the Moon could have formed within hours of the impact! Cool! More to learn and more for our astronomers and scientists to study and learn!
To see the simulation that SwRI put out on YouTube and get a quick snapshot of this video, head over to Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. You can also go and see the article for yourself!
NGC 2392, the Clown Face or Lion Nebula in Gemini; My Sketch from winter of 2017.
My purpose here is to get more of you looking up and observing Planetary Nebula. They are some of the most beautiful objects in our night sky and they represent the end stages of a main sequence star like our Sun, one that is between 0.4 to 8 solar masses and is at the end stage of life. I guess I love them for a couple of reasons. They are the opposite of my other favorite objects, Supernova Remnant which is the leftover of a massive star that went supernova and basically destroyed itself, leaving in most of their cases, a neutron star.
So I'll show you what I have done here. I broke the Astronomical League's Program into seasons. It is NOT perfect. Some objects probably need to go in another season or could. If you find such, please let me know by making recommendations in comments or by contacting me. I'm not the type that is set on anything and will always make adjustments if the logic is good and sound.
I've also included my own observation, or as most show, Steve Gottlieb's
Anyway, they are in both a Google Sheet and Doc format. I"ll include them both in the links below. I'll also attach as either a PDF or a Excel Doc also if that helps.
To get the full copy of the Google Doc, Sheet or the PDF or Excel version, please head over to Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. The links and attachements are at the bottom of the post.
