It has been a cloudy and cold term here in Northfield, MN. But we managed to get a few pretty cool shots:
Above is our shot of M42, the nebula in Orion’s sword sheath. In a color image of the bright nebula, the gaseous cloudy regions would appear red due to their high hydrogen content. The bright center of the nebula is where new stars are being born. The Orion Nebula is about 1,500 light years away.
Above is our first success with the CCD camera, a great shot of the Globular Cluster M15. One could find our good buddy M15 hanging out in the constellation Pegasus, 34,000 light years away. The bright spot in the upper left hand corner of the picture is a small planetary nebula. Can you believe this is our first image?! (Then again we only have two good images, but who’s counting?)
If you’re really interested in this stuff you can check out these sites: