Gammy Cygni (Sadr) is the bright blue star in the center of this image. It is 1800 light years away and the nebulosity in this image (IC 1318) is far behind (4900 light years).
These two object accidentally fit into one frame. On the bottom the Owl Nebula, a planetary nebula 2000 light years away, on the top the so called Surfboard Galaxy 40 million light yeras away. Quite a difference …
This is a relatively close star forming region (about 460 lightyears) in constellation Ophiuchus. Also visible below the nebulae Globular Cluster M4 at about 7200 light years distance and bright super giant star Antares in Scorpius just left to M4. On top the so called Blue Horsehead Nebula. Stripes of dark clouds at the left pointing to the core of our Milky Way.
This is the brightest part of the huge nebula complex in Orion. It is a star nursery and young stars illuminate remaining gas and dust in that region which is pretty close to our solar system: only about 1350 light years away.
This image was taken from my location above the city lights of Winterthur without any filter. And it was the first picture I gave a try with PixInsight … and the result was amazing. Stars were so bright that I reduced the exposure time down to 60 seconds in order to avoid pixel saturation.
A Planetary Nebula in constellation Gemini about 1500 light years from earth. At first it was thought to be a Supernova remnant, but more recent measurements of the expansion velocity suggest it to be more likely a Planetary Nebula. These are the outer shells of a sun-like star which have been expelled at the end of the active live of the star.
NCG 2174 is an emission nebula in constellation Orion. It is associated to open star cluster NGC 2175 which delivers the energy which powers the radiation of the gas.
This is a final processing result pushing the blue inner part. Normally is it shown in red, result of prominent Halpha radiation from hydrogen.
NCG 2246 (Caldwell 439) is a star forming region in Monoceros about 5000 light years distant. The young star cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) in the center of this region has been formed from material of this cloud and is pushing the remaining material towards the outside. The nebula will disappear in some million years while still creating new stars …
Dark Cloud in Orion in front of read emission nebula IC 434. Left to bright star Alnitak the so called Flame Nebula or NGC 2024.
This image shows originally very bright halos around bright stars caused by the IDAS NBX filter, which was very bad to this respect. Meanwhile IDAS has released NBZ as a better replacement … and it is really better.