#williamsoptics

[clayhaus]

IC 434 -- the Horsehead Nebula -- is a dark nebula and to the upper left, NGC 2024 -- the Flame Nebula -- is an emission nebula. The bright star is Alnitak, the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion. The star is blasting energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame Nebula exciting the clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there causing the vivid red color. On the other hand, the inkiness of the Horsehead Nebula is caused mostly by thick dust blocking the light of stars behind it creating essentially a silhouette. Photographed Christmas Eve and is the result of 2 hours of light gathering (30x180s + 6x300s) with my 61mm Williams Optics ZenithStar, ZWO ASI183MC camera plus an Optolong L-eXtreme HA/OIII filter. #horseheadnebula #orionsbelt #orion #williamsoptics #zwoasi #zwo #zwocamera #optolong #astrophotography #clayhausphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CJRv-1phnQt/?igshid=1imoe063tpkkb

[clayhaus]

Re-processed an image of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, that I captured earlier in the month. Methinks it turned out better. #andromedagalaxy #andromeda #celesteonavxmount #williamsopticsz61 #williamsoptics #zwocamera #zwoasi #zwo #clayhausphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CIB8OO2B3z7/?igshid=bk53qqs294ff

[clayhaus]

M 33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is a little over 2.3 million ly away from us. It is the third largest galaxy in our local group, behind us, the Milky Way, and the Andromeda galaxy, which is by far the largest. It is estimated that Triangulum may have up to 40 billion stars, compared to 400 billion for the Milky Way, and 1 trillion stars for Andromeda Galaxy. Visually one can see the M 33 is a fairly compact, spectrally diffuse spiral galaxy. It is relatively close to the Andromeda Galaxy and due to the inexorable effects of gravity may well be involved in our galaxy’s mash-up with Andromeda in about 4 billion years. Should be fun. #galaxy #milkyway #astrophotography #celestron #williamsoptics #zwocamera #clayhausphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CHRN8TyBD0X/?igshid=5e88x028ttqq

[clayhaus]

NGC 7789 is an open star cluster also known as Caroline’s Rose. It is located in the constellation Cassiopia and was discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783. She was an astronomer who also discovered a number of comets and other deep sky objects. Her older brother William Herschel discovered many objects as well as the planet Uranus. They often collaborated. This cluster is comprised of hundreds of young and old stars and in this photograph you can see the differences between those two star types by their colors. The older stars are yellowish and the newer stars are bluish. #starclusters #cassopeia #astrophotography #clayhausphotography #williamsoptics #celestron #zwo #zwocameras https://www.instagram.com/p/CHOPiJahwpr/?igshid=15qt1nlkgedou