Through Light and Time (2026)

21/05/2026

A three-faced nebula — emission, reflection, and dark dust woven into a single stellar nursery

Messier 20, the Trifid Nebula (NGC 6514, Sharpless 30), is an H II region and embedded young stellar cluster in the constellation Sagittarius, lying within the Sagittarius–Carina Arm of the Milky Way along one of the richest star-forming corridors visible from Earth — as one of the most iconic and frequently imaged deep-sky objects in the southern sky, M20 is rarely seen at this scale, and the 9000 mm focal length of the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 brings the nebula into close range, resolving the fine structure of the dust lanes, the texture of the ionisation fronts, and the embedded detail within the bright central cavity that wider-field treatments cannot reach
The nebula lies at an approximate distance of 4,100 light-years, with literature values spanning roughly 2,700 to 5,200 light-years owing to the difficulty of reddening corrections through the dense Sagittarius foreground — its apparent angular size is approximately 28′, corresponding to a physical extent on the order of 40 light-years across the visible emission complex, with an integrated visual magnitude of approximately 6,3
The ionised emission lobes are powered principally by HD 164492A, an O7,5 III star of more than twenty solar masses, the dominant member of a multiple system embedded at the convergence of the dark dust lanes near the geometric centre of the nebula — its ultraviolet output excites the surrounding hydrogen, producing the dominant Hα emission, while OIII traces the hotter inner ionised cavity nearest the exciting cluster — the three-lobed appearance is the signature of Barnard 85, a foreground absorbing dust complex whose lanes silhouette the bright H II region into the divided form for which the nebula was named by John Herschel — the cooler reflection nebula visible toward the southern portion of the field, illuminated by the B-type star HD 164514, is composed of dust scattering blue starlight rather than emitting in its own right, and the cometary globules and bright-rimmed pillars along the periphery mark sites where the O-star radiation field is eroding and compressing the surrounding molecular cloud
The Trifid is one of the youngest known star-forming regions in the local Galaxy, with an estimated age of only a few hundred thousand years — infrared imaging from the Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed more than thirty embryonic protostars and over a hundred newly formed stars deeply embedded in the dust, hidden entirely from optical view, and Hubble observations have resolved evaporating gaseous globules and a stellar jet emerging from a young stellar object near the eastern lobe, evidence of ongoing triggered star formation as ionisation fronts driven by the central O stars compress nearby cloud cores and induce gravitational collapse — the nebula thus offers a simultaneous view of three distinct nebular phenomena — emission, reflection, and absorption — co-located within a single active stellar nursery
Imaged in LRGB, Hα, and OIII on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500,
Camera Moravian C5A 150M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile

Image Acquisition Mike Selby and Wolfgang Promper, Processing: Mike Selby

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19/05/2026

A thin blade of dust and starlight suspended in the dark

NGC 3717 is a striking edge-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra, seen almost perfectly from the side so that its entire disk is compressed into a narrow luminous line. It is classified as SAb? edge-on, indicating an early-type spiral structure whose internal form is revealed dramatically by our viewing angle. The galaxy lies about 59 million light-years away and appears roughly 6.8 × 1.2 arcminutes across, corresponding to a true diameter of about 118,000 light-years
Its most defining feature is the prominent dust lane slicing through the bright central disk, a dense band of interstellar material silhouetted against the combined light of billions of stars. Along the thinner outer disk, faint bluish patches and brighter knots mark regions of ongoing star formation, while the galaxy’s slightly tilted orientation allows its vertical structure and layered stellar disk to stand out with unusual clarity. Most intriguing of all are the extremely faint outer extensions at the ends of the disk, giving NGC 3717 a delicate warped and mildly tidal-like appearance that is often lost in shallower images.
That combination of a razor-thin profile, deep dust structure, and barely visible disturbed outer envelope makes NGC 3717 especially compelling. Around it, the field is filled with countless distant background galaxies, placing this elegant spiral within a much larger cosmic landscape and reminding us how much structure can remain hidden at the threshold of visibility

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A150M at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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16/05/2026

A barred spiral nearly on edge, arms shattered into starlight

NGC 5792, also catalogued as UGC 9631 and PGC 53499, is a highly inclined barred spiral classified as SB(rs)b in the constellation Libra
The NED mean redshift-independent distance is 83 ± 14 Mly, placing the galaxy as a member of the Virgo III Groups east of the Virgo Supercluster, with an apparent size of 6.9′ × 1.7′ corresponding to a physical major-axis diameter of about 167,000 ly and a V magnitude of 12.1
The disk is presented at an inclination of roughly 70 to 80 degrees, producing the elongated profile in which a central bar, an inner ring, and an outer pseudo-ring fold into one another, with the spiral arms appearing distinctly fragmented rather than continuous, broken into discrete chains of pink HII regions and blue OB associations separated by intervening dust, a flocculent star-forming pattern rather than a smooth grand-design spiral, with a bright magnitude 9.6 foreground star projected onto the northwestern edge of the galaxy
At the center sits a compact nuclear ring about 1.5 kpc across, recently shown in VLA radio continuum imaging to contain a faint polarized core consistent with a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus at an Eddington ratio near 10⁻⁵, with the surrounding ring dominated by non-thermal synchrotron emission from past star formation, a configuration reminiscent of the Central Molecular Zone in our own Milky Way
The smaller elliptical and several faint background galaxies dotting the field underline how this system sits in a richly populated extragalactic neighborhood, a bar-driven gas-funneling machine quietly feeding both fragmented arm-scale star formation and a dormant black hole at its heart
Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 150M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile

Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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13/05/2026

The graveyard of a star, with one of the strangest neutron stars known at its heart — seen as it was 10,000 years ago

RCW 103 is a Type II supernova remnant lying about 10,100 light-years away in the southern constellation Norma. The shell spans roughly 10 arcminutes on the sky, which at that distance corresponds to a physical diameter of about 30 light-years. Its visible magnitude is faint and diffuse — this is an object defined entirely by its filamentary emission rather than any integrated brightness figure
The remnant is the expanding debris of a core-collapse supernova whose progenitor was a relatively low-mass massive star, around 10–12 solar masses. Age estimates from optical proper-motion studies and X-ray kinematics place the explosion between 2,000 and 4,400 years ago — but a clarification is needed here. That "age" refers to how old the remnant appeared at the moment the light in this image left it. Because RCW 103 is about 10,100 light-years away, the photons captured here have been traveling for roughly ten millennia. The remnant we are seeing is therefore showing us its appearance around 10,000 years ago, when it was 2,000 years old. In its own present-day frame, RCW 103 is now closer to 12,000 years old and has continued to expand, cool, and interact with its surrounding medium — but we have no way of seeing that current state, and won't for another 10,000 years. Every deep-sky image is, in this sense, a fossil photon record rather than a live view. At its geometric center sits 1E 161348−5055, one of the strangest compact objects known: a magnetar with an extraordinarily long spin period of 6.67 hours, orders of magnitude slower than any ordinary young neutron star. Whether that slow rotation is intrinsic, magnetically braked, or the result of interaction with a fallback disk remains an open question
Structurally, RCW 103 shows a nearly circular shell with the southern limb dramatically brighter than the north — a brightness asymmetry that traces the remnant's collision with a dense molecular cloud along its southern edge. In this image the H-alpha emission renders as a deep ruby red, marking the shocked hydrogen front and the surrounding interstellar medium, while the OIII emission traces the hotter, higher-velocity shock fronts as cool blue and violet filaments woven through the interior. The intricate, almost fibrous texture is characteristic of a radiative shock cooling against a clumpy, inhomogeneous medium — every filament is gas being compressed, ionized, and re-emitting as it slows
Astrophysically, RCW 103 is a key laboratory for two related questions: how massive stars at the lower end of the core-collapse range end their lives, and how the magnetar phenomenon arises and evolves. The detection of nitrogen-rich circumstellar material around the remnant points to a progenitor that shed substantial mass through stellar winds in its red supergiant phase, while gamma-ray emission from the southern limb traces ongoing cosmic-ray acceleration where the blast wave grinds into the molecular cloud. RCW 103 is, in effect, a still-active engine — a young remnant where the physics of explosion, magnetic field amplification, and shock-cloud interaction are all happening simultaneously and visibly

Imaged in HOO with RGB stars on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 150M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile

Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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11/05/2026

A distorted spiral under tidal stress, caught in the early stages of galactic interaction

NGC 3169 and NGC 3166 form an interacting galaxy pair in the constellation Sextans, separated by only a small distance in space and now beginning to distort one another through tidal forces. NGC 3169 is classified as an SA(s)a spiral galaxy, displaying a bright elongated core and tightly wound arms that are already noticeably asymmetric. Its companion, NGC 3166, is an SA(s)0/a system—a transitional lenticular–spiral galaxy with a smoother disk and a more subdued internal structure
Located at a distance of approximately 70 million light-years, NGC 3169 spans about 110,000 light-years in diameter, with an apparent angular size of roughly 4.6 × 2.1 arcminutes. NGC 3166 is somewhat smaller, measuring about 75,000 light-years across with an apparent size of approximately 3.9 × 2.3 arcminutes. Both galaxies shine near magnitude 10.9, appearing modest in brightness but revealing intricate structure under deep, high-resolution imaging.
The structure of NGC 3169 is already significantly disturbed. Its spiral arms are lopsided and partially unwound, while a warped dust lane cuts irregularly across the luminous core, indicating that the galaxy’s internal dynamics are being affected. Faint blue star-forming regions appear in a patchy, uneven distribution, no longer tracing a clean spiral pattern. Surrounding the galaxy, the outer halo shows subtle distortion and extension, with faint tidal material beginning to stretch toward NGC 3166
In contrast, NGC 3166 appears more orderly at first glance, but closer inspection reveals a system that is not entirely undisturbed. Its disk lacks perfect symmetry, and its outer regions hint at the same gravitational influence shaping its companion. Together, the pair illustrates an early stage of interaction—before dramatic tidal tails fully develop, but after gravity has already begun to reshape structure, redistribute stars, and alter the evolution of both galaxies

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 150M at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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08/05/2026

A tilted spiral suspended in space, its dust-laced disk revealing depth rather than a simple edge

IC 4351 is an edge-on SA(s)b spiral galaxy in Hydra, viewed at a slight inclination that allows both its thin disk and internal structure to be seen simultaneously. The luminous central bulge rises smoothly from the midplane, while the disk extends outward in a long, uneven band crossed by a fragmented and slightly displaced dust lane, giving the galaxy a layered, three-dimensional appearance
At a distance of about 92.9 million light-years, IC 4351 spans approximately 8.6 × 1.5 arcminutes, corresponding to a physical diameter of around 71,600 light-years. This perspective compresses its spiral structure into a narrow profile, yet still reveals knotty, localized star-forming regions, visible as faint pink H II regions embedded along the disk, along with subtle blue stellar populations tracing younger stars
The dust lane is not smooth but clumpy and irregular, with variations in opacity that create a textured, almost turbulent structure along the midplane. The outer disk shows a slight asymmetry, with one side appearing more extended and diffuse, while the other is more sharply bounded. Surrounding the inner regions, a faint vertical thickening hints at a thicker stellar component beyond the main disk, adding to the sense of depth in this nearly edge-on view
Rather than a perfectly thin line, IC 4351 presents a more complex portrait—one where the compressed geometry of a spiral galaxy still reveals its internal structure, star formation, and layered composition

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 Camera Moravian C5A 150M at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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05/05/2026

A gravitational contest at the heart of the Antlia Cluster

Dominating the center of this field is NGC 3268, a giant elliptical galaxy classified as E2 and one of the two primary gravitational anchors of the Antlia Cluster in the constellation Antlia, located about 133 million light-years from Earth. Its immense halo of ancient stars extends far beyond its visible core, forming a vast envelope of intracluster light—stars stripped from smaller galaxies during billions of years of gravitational encounters. Just below it, the equally massive elliptical NGC 3258 reveals that Antlia possesses two competing central dominant galaxies, clear evidence that this cluster formed through the merger of two once-separate galaxy systems whose cores have not yet fully settled.
Above the cluster center, the blue spiral galaxy NGC 3269 displays subtle asymmetries and faint outer stellar extensions, signatures of tidal forces acting as the cluster’s gravitational field gradually strips material from its disk. Nearby, the lenticular galaxy NGC 3267 shows the smooth, lens-like structure typical of galaxies that have already lost their spiral arms through repeated interactions. The extended halos surrounding the cluster’s largest members are not bound to any single galaxy, but instead trace the shared gravitational environment of the cluster itself.
Scattered throughout the field are dozens of additional cluster members, along with countless more distant background galaxies whose light has traveled far beyond the boundaries of Antlia. Together they reveal a dynamic environment where gravity continues to reshape galaxies, redistribute stars, and build the massive structures that define the large-scale architecture of the universe

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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03/05/2026

A subtly misaligned spiral whose quiet structure reveals a galaxy built through past disruption rather than symmetry

NGC 4698 is an unbarred spiral galaxy of morphological type SA(s)ab located in the constellation Virgo. Unlike more prominent grand-design spirals, this system is intrinsically low in contrast: its spiral arms are smooth, loosely defined, and relatively faint, with only modest pockets of star formation. The dust lanes are present but do not carve sharply through the disk, and the outer regions fade gradually into a diffuse, low surface brightness envelope. This gives the galaxy a continuous, almost seamless luminosity profile rather than strong structural boundaries
One of its most remarkable features is the internal misalignment between the bulge and the disk. The central stellar bulge rotates on a different axis than the surrounding disk, a rare configuration that points to a past accretion or merger event. This decoupling also softens the visual transition between core and disk, reducing the usual contrast break seen in more typical spirals and contributing to the galaxy’s overall smooth appearance.
NGC 4698 lies at a redshift-independent distance of approximately 73.2 million light-years. It spans about 4.0 arcminutes on the sky, corresponding to a physical diameter of roughly 85,000 light-years, and shines at an apparent magnitude near 11.5. As a member of the Virgo Cluster, it resides in a rich extragalactic environment, reflected in the numerous background galaxies scattered across the field
The galaxy is also classified as a Seyfert 2 system, indicating an active nucleus obscured by surrounding material. While the active core is not visually dominant, it adds another layer to the galaxy’s complex evolutionary history
Because of its smooth brightness distribution, low surface brightness outer disk, and lack of strong arm contrast, NGC 4698 presents a unique observational challenge. Its structure does not reveal itself through bold features, but rather through subtle gradients and delicate asymmetries, rewarding careful observation with a deeper appreciation of its unusual dynamics

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera: Moravian C5A 150M at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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29/04/2026

A stellar bubble adrift in a sea of ionized gas

ESO 382-63 presents a striking example of a planetary nebula embedded within an expansive emission structure, located in the southern constellation Centaurus. The central object is a classic spherical shell produced during the late evolutionary stages of a Sun-like star, now expelling its outer layers into the surrounding interstellar medium. The nebula displays a well-defined circular morphology with internal filamentary structure, shaped by interacting stellar winds and earlier episodes of mass loss
At an estimated distance of roughly 6,500 light-years, the bright inner shell spans about 1.5 light-years in diameter, corresponding to an apparent angular size of approximately 50 arcseconds. Its vivid pink coloration arises from strong hydrogen emission, while the broader, more diffuse envelope rendered in blue traces oxygen emission extending several arcminutes across, indicating a much older and more extended outflow interacting with the surrounding medium
The nebula’s age can be estimated from its physical size and typical expansion velocities of planetary nebulae. With an expansion speed on the order of 20–30 km/s, the bright inner shell is approximately 20,000 to 30,000 years old. This places ESO 382-63 in a moderately evolved phase, where the central white dwarf continues to ionize the expanding shell. The much fainter outer structures likely originate from earlier mass-loss episodes and may be significantly older, preserving a longer record of the progenitor star’s final stages
Subtle asymmetries in the outer arcs and variations in brightness suggest interaction with the interstellar medium or directional mass ejection during the star’s final phases. Over time, this nebula will continue to expand and dissipate, enriching the surrounding space with processed material and contributing to the ongoing cycle of stellar evolution

Imaged in Ha OIII and RGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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27/04/2026

A radiant bridge of stars and gas links two spiral galaxies on a path toward merger

NGC 5257 and NGC 5258 form the interacting system Arp 240 in the constellation Virgo. “Arp” refers to the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, compiled by Halton Arp, which catalogs galaxies with unusual or distorted structures—typically the result of gravitational interactions. NGC 5257 is classified as SAB(s)b pec, a weakly barred spiral galaxy whose structure has been significantly disturbed by tidal forces from its companion. Its spiral arms are stretched and asymmetric, and a prominent tidal bridge connects the pair, marking the ongoing exchange of stars and gas between them
NGC 5257 lies approximately 341 million light-years away. It has an apparent size of about 1.6 × 0.8 arcminutes, corresponding to a physical diameter of roughly 159,000 × 79,000 light-years. The system is also identified as an HII luminous infrared galaxy, indicating enhanced star formation triggered by the interaction, particularly along the distorted arms and within the connecting bridge
The tidal bridge is the defining feature of this system—a stream of material drawn out by gravity as the galaxies orbit one another. The spiral arms of NGC 5257 appear unusually open and irregular, with prominent blue star-forming regions tracing areas of compression and instability. The core remains intact but is dynamically influenced, with gas likely funneled inward, sustaining elevated star formation.
The pair is gravitationally bound and is expected to merge over the next several hundred million years. As the interaction progresses, their structures will become increasingly disrupted before ultimately coalescing into a single, more massive galaxy, preserving only faint traces of their original spiral forms

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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24/04/2026

A shining spiral where individual stellar nurseries and clusters emerge from the grand design

Messier 83 (NGC 5236) is a barred spiral galaxy of morphological type SAB(s)c, located in the constellation Hydra. Often called the Southern Pinwheel, it is one of the nearest and most structurally rich grand-design spirals, offering a detailed view of star formation on galactic scales
Situated at a carefully measured distance of about 14.9 million light-years, M83 spans approximately 12.9 × 11.5 arcminutes, corresponding to a physical diameter of roughly 55,000 light-years, with an integrated magnitude near 7.5. At this proximity, each arcsecond corresponds to about 72 light-years, and with a resolution approaching 0.7 arcseconds (~50 light-years), the image resolves structure on the scale of individual star clusters and stellar associations, revealing a level of detail rarely achieved in ground-based imaging
The loosely wound spiral arms are richly textured, breaking into chains of discrete star-forming complexes rather than smooth luminous bands. These bright knots, embedded in glowing hydrogen clouds, trace the density waves shaping the spiral pattern while also revealing local fragmentation and propagation of star formation across the disk. The dust lanes are equally intricate, appearing braided and irregular, reflecting turbulence and shock fronts within the interstellar medium
At the center, the nucleus is clearly resolved and non-stellar, showing a compact but structured starburst region. The inner morphology hints at a circumnuclear ring of star formation, where clusters are arranged in a partial ring-like distribution around the core. Subtle asymmetry in the central brightness suggests the well-known offset nuclear structure of M83, likely the result of past dynamical interactions and ongoing gas inflow. Across the outer disk, the galaxy shows mild asymmetry and uneven arm development, consistent with tidal influences within its local group environment
Astrophysically, M83 is a prototypical starburst spiral, with a high rate of star formation and frequent supernova activity. Its proximity and orientation make it an exceptional laboratory for studying how spiral density waves, turbulence, and stellar feedback combine to shape the evolution of a galaxy in detail

Imaged in LRGB and Hydrogen Alpha on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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Through Light and Time

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