Dear friends of The Lonely Photon,

I’m sure by this time you will have noticed the marvellous colours all around, the slightly cooler temperatures and progressively longer, darker nights. And I’m sure you know what this means: yes, Autumn is back!

Apart from being my favourite season, this is also the best time of the year for astronomers and astrophotographers as the sky plumes with magnificent jewels and breath-taking sights.

Some of the largest galaxies (including Andromeda and Triangulum) are climbing up quickly, the planets keep on dancing with the Moon and other objects while vibrant nebulas take over the sky again.

And speaking about nebulas, I want to introduce you to my latest projects and possibly my best works so far.

The North America and Pelican nebulas

This is a large emission nebula located some 2,600 light years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus.

The left part of the nebula is informally known as the North America Nebula, due to its resemblance in shape to the continent. The region equivalent to the area between Mexico and Central America is known as the Cygnus Wall, the area of the nebula with the highest star formation rate.

More info here: North America and Pelican

The Cygnus Loop

The Cygnus Loop is what astronomers call a large supernova remnant (SNR) -the leftovers of a massive stellar explosion that occurred 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. As the blast was enormous, the gas and dust that form this nebula are still expanding at incredible speed.

More info here: Cygnus Loop

The Elephant Trunk nebula

The Elephant Trunk  is a “globule”, or a region of interstellar dust and gas, that takes its peculiar name from the resemblance to the proboscis of an elephant. This is part of a large but faint emission nebula (IC 1396) that lies around 2,400 light years from Earth, in the constellation Cepheus

More info here: Elephant Trunk

I hope you enjoyed the view, stay tuned for more.

Clear skies!