Vermont Astronomical Society

06/05/2026

The Crescent nebula or NGC 6888 , (or Caldwell 27) is an iconic and often imaged astrophotography subject, I've imaged it before at least 4 times, and this one was imaged by my new CDK14 with x0.6 reducer which gives a focal length of approx. 1500mm

Why does it look like that ? At the center lies a rare and gigantic type of star, WR136 , a Wolf-Rayet star so energetic that it has already been a red super giant and blown out a shell of stellar material around 250,000 years ago. You can see the star just above the little dust clump in the middle.

A lot of stuff has been said about this subject, so here's some less common observations on NGC 6888.
The two "shells" surrounding the star WR136 can clearly be seen; they are caused by a fierce stellar wind pushing out and hitting and rebounding from the previously ejected stellar materials.
The dark spot and filament are not connected to the nebula; they are part of the ISM. A lot of the visible glow comes from dust heated by the stellar wind. This is not a Supernova remnant -yet! but one day it will explode in a massive supernova event. The progenitor star ( WR136) was originally about 50 times the mass of our sun and about half of that now forms the nebula .

If you get chance to look through a decent sized telescope under a dark sky, it's quite a sight, I did this a few months ago through a 30" Dobsonian under Bortle 1 skies in New Mexico and it was great !
The outer ( blue) shell is sometimes difficult to image, and in this image, I've used Ha , and OIII filters to image this, with RGB for the stars.

Also of interest in this image is the very faint but almost perfectly spherical planetary nebula known as the "Soap bubble" nebula (bottom left in this image). This was only discovered in 2008 by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich.
I hope you like it.

Techy stuff:
Ha ( 3nm) 27 x 900 s
OIII (3nm) 43 x 900 s
R,G, B each 30 x 30 s
Scope : Planewave CDK14 with 0.6 reducer (f4.2)
Mount : AP 1600 GTO -AE
Camera : QHY 600 SBF
Location : Dark Sky New Mexico, Animas, NM

05/29/2026

Lots of Galaxies !
Markarians chain is named for Benjamin Makarian who first observed and noted the common motion of these galaxies which are part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It may not look like it, but this image has no foreground stars ! every smudge of light in this image is a galaxy. I removed the stars to let the galaxies shine through; it gives some idea of the scale of the universe. The Virgo cluster is BIG; you can see in this image some large elliptical galaxies, such as M84 and M86, towards the top of this image, and also some little smudges that are unfathomably far away. Our own Milky way galaxy is also on the outer reaches of this galaxy group.
Of interest are " The eyes" galaxies ( NGC 4435 & NGC 4438), these are closely interacting Galaxies, and you can easily see the distorted shape of the arms of these galaxies.
It's interesting that there is very little blue in this image some distant galaxies and the distorted arms of the "Eyes" galaxies. This is because hot young stars are being formed here, often due to gravitational effects. Many galaxies are yellow in color, and these are "dead" galaxies where no more star production is happening, and are mainly populated with yellow, old stars.
Image credit : Richard Whitehead

05/06/2026

On our website @ https://vtastro.org, you can read our quarterly Newsletters, browse our discussion Forum of questions & answers on a variety of astronomy topics ~ how-to’s, astrophotography, equipment, and the like!
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https://vtastro.org

The Vermont Astronomical Society is a group of amateur astronomers with varying backgrounds and levels of expertise whose mission is to promote amateur astronomy in Vermont. About the VAS We are located in the Burlington, Vermont area with monthly meetings in Essex Junction and an observatory in Hin...

04/25/2026

Have you noticed the Moon with the Gemini Twins and Jupiter lately?!

04/15/2026

Look out for it!

EarthSky friend John Ashley shared his video of Comet R3 PanSTARRS rising before the sun in Arizona on April 12, 2026. John wrote: “Comet PanSTARRS rises beyond the Smithsonian’s Whipple Observatory. The comet is barely visible to the eye but an easy target with binoculars. And it’s getting br...

04/15/2026

We are bidding our Winter Sky Constellations "farewell" (that's good, as far as VT nighttime temps). Here is a 'goodbye' from our VAS member ~

The Rosette Nebula in constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn) -
1hr12min taken on 3/9/26, 400mm @ ISO 25,600, f/6.3, 15sec (292 subexposures) using an Olympus camera.
by Maura Kelley

*As seen here, if you have a digital camera and a simple tracking tripod, you can do this too! Contact us at https://vtastro.org; we are here to help YOU learn!

04/15/2026

How saving the dark sky can reduce the harmful effects of light pollution.

04/14/2026

This International Dark Sky Week, we invite you to “GO DARK” with us by stepping outside after sunset and experiencing the nighttime environment around you.

04/14/2026

Celebrate International Dark Sky Week, a global event inspiring people to discover the night, reduce light pollution, and take action to protect dark skies worldwide.

04/10/2026

Around the Moon and back. Watch the Artemis II astronauts come home.NASA's Artemis II mission is splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at about 8:07 p.m. EDT o...