Atacama BackYard Observatory - Established March 27, 2019

Small Magellanic Cloud

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), or Nubecula Minor, is a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. Classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy, the SMC has a diameter of about 7,000 light-years, contains several hundred million stars, and has a total mass of approximately 7 billion solar masses. The SMC contains a central bar structure, and astronomers speculate that it was once a barred spiral galaxy that was disrupted by the Milky Way to become somewhat irregular. At a distance of about 200,000 light-years, the SMC is among the nearest intergalactic neighbors of the Milky Way and is one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye.

NGC 1365 and the Fronax Cluster

The Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), from the solar system's perspective forming its south-east corner. The Tarantula Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 8. Considering its distance of about 49 kpc (160,000 light-years), this is an extremely luminous non-stellar object. Its luminosity is so great that if it were as close to Earth as the Orion Nebula, the Tarantula Nebula would cast visible shadows. In fact, it is the most active starburst region known in the Local Group of galaxies. It is also one of the largest H II regions in the Local Group with an estimated diameter around 200 to 570 pc, and also because of its very large size, it is sometimes described as the largest, although other H II regions such as NGC 604, which is in the Triangulum Galaxy, could be larger. The nebula resides on the leading edge of the LMC where ram pressure stripping, and the compression of the interstellar medium likely resulting from this, is at a maximum. -Wikipedia

The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888)

is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792.[2] It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000[3] to 400,000[citation needed] years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures. -Wikipedia

Antares region

The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue light from the Rho Ophiuchi star system and nearby stars reflects more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue for the same reason. The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares - knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark brown regions are caused by dust grains - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, well in front of the globular cluster M4 visible here centre/top, are even more colorful than humans can see - the clouds emits light in every wavelength band from the radio to the gamma-ray.

Antares region luminance

The Helix Nebula

M7 Ptolemy Cluster

Messier 7 or M7, also designated NGC 6475 and sometimes known as the Ptolemy Cluster, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Scorpius. The cluster is easily detectable with the naked eye, close to the "stinger" of Scorpius. With a declination of −34.8°, it is the southernmost Messier object. Wikipedia Distance to Earth: 978.5 light years Magnitude: 3.3 Radius: 25 light years Apparent dimensions (V): 80.0′ Other designations: Ptolemy Cluster, M7, NGC 6475, Cr 354 Apparent magnitude (V): 3.3

the Vela Supernova Remnant

What you see here represents the culmination of a lot of effort! Firstly, the image acquisition took about 200 hours of data collection using LRGB and Ha filters. The telescopic field of view was too narrow to fit this all in one image, so a 9 panel mosaic was required. Then of course were the hours of post processing the data, mostly in Pixinsight with a few Photoshop edits mixed in. Click through for a higher resolution view. The field of view is about 6 degrees square, double the apparent size of Andromeda Galaxy.

Vela Supernova Remnant Hydrogen Alpha

Vela Supernova Remnant Hydrogen Alpha (no stars)

NGC 6995 The Veil Nebula

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus.[4] It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop,[5] a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun, and it exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.[2] The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, and 36 times the area, of the full Moon).[4] While previous distance estimates have ranged from 1200 to 5800 light-years, a recent determination of 2400 light-years is based on direct astrometric measurements.[2] (The distance estimates affect also the estimates of size and age.) -Wikipedia

NGC3532

NGC 3532 (Caldwell 91), also commonly known as the Pincushion Cluster, Football Cluster, and the Wishing Well Cluster, is an open cluster some 405 parsecs from Earth in the constellation Carina. Its population of approximately 150 stars of 7th magnitude or fainter includes seven red giants and seven white dwarfs.On 20 May 1990 it became the first target ever observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. A line from Beta Crucis through Delta Crucis passes somewhat to the north of NGC 3532. The cluster lies between the constellation Crux and the larger but fainter "False Cross" asterism. The 4th-magnitude Cepheid variable star x Carinae (V382 Car) appears near the southeast fringes, but it lies between the Sun and the cluster and is not a member of the cluster. The cluster was first catalogued by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751. It was admired by John Herschel, who thought it one of the finest star clusters in the sky, with many double stars (binary stars). - Wikipedia

NGC3603

Comet C/2020 F8 SWAN

SWAN0501

Centaurus A

Centaurus A or NGC 5128 is a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop from his home in Parramatta, in New South Wales, Australia. There is considerable debate in the literature regarding the galaxy's fundamental properties such as its Hubble type (lenticular galaxy or a giant elliptical galaxy) and distance (10–16 million light-years). NGC 5128 is one of the closest radio galaxies to Earth, so its active galactic nucleus has been extensively studied by professional astronomers. The galaxy is also the fifth-brightest in the sky, making it an ideal amateur astronomy target, although the galaxy is only visible from low northern latitudes and the southern hemisphere. The center of the galaxy contains a supermassive black hole with a mass of 55 million solar masses, which ejects a relativistic jet that is responsible for emissions in the X-ray and radio wavelengths. By taking radio observations of the jet separated by a decade, astronomers have determined that the inner parts of the jet are moving at about half of the speed of light. X-rays are produced farther out as the jet collides with surrounding gases, resulting in the creation of highly energetic particles. The X-ray jets of Centaurus A are thousands of light-years long, while the radio jets are over a million light-years long. Like other starburst galaxies, a collision is suspected to be responsible for the intense burst of star formation. Models have suggested that Centaurus A was a large elliptical galaxy that collided and merged with a smaller spiral galaxy. - Wikipedia

The Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula is a large spherical H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter. - Wikipedia Radius: 65 light years Distance to Earth: 5,219 light years Coordinates: RA 6h 33m 45s | Dec +4° 59′ 54″ Distance: 5,200 ly (1,600 pc) Constellation: Monoceros Designations: SH 2-275, CTB 21, Caldwell 49