Constellations and objects in the sky

Objects in constellations of Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila. Milky Way imaged 2nd of October 2016. In Finland these constellations are in south when autumn sky gets dark. The stars Deneb, Vega and Altair form a "Summer triangle". Nebulae M57 and M27 can be seen visually with a telescope. The North America nebula NGC7000 is wide and dim object and it becomes visible with long exposure photographs. Millions of stars and dark clouds of Milky Way galaxy are well visible. The M16 and M17 nebulae are difficult to observe from Finland. They are low in horizon in September after sunset. Hubble space telescope took the famous Pillars of Creation image of M16 Eagle nebula. Caldwell 33 and 34 is a supernova remnant of a massive star which exploded 6000 years ago.Tabby’s star KIC 8462852 has had interesting variations in brightness The Cygnus X-1 is a powerful X-Ray source. It is a black hole orbiting a blue giant star HDE 226868.

The objects in the sky have been registered with Messier numbers like M 57 and NGC numbers like NGC 7000. At the end of 1700 century Charles Messier made his catalog of sky objects. The catalog contained 110 objects. The New General Catalogue (NGC) contains about 8000 objects. J.L.E. Dreyer did it at the end of 1880s. Other catalogs are Index Catalogue (IC, NGC update), Abell (galaxy clusters), Caldwell, 3C (Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources, Quasars).

Below are objects in constellations of Andromeda, Perseus and Triangulum. The Andromeda galaxy M31 is in 2.4 million light year distance, and it can be seen as a dim nebulous object in sky with naked eye. The Double cluster in Perseus is well visible with binoculars. The galaxy cluster Abell 426 is in distance of 273 million light years. The galaxy M33 is in 3 million ligth years distance. Quasar 3C-48 is in 4 billion light years distance.

Objects in constellations of Orionin, Taurus, Gemini and Monoceros. In the Great Orion nebula M42 about 2000 new stars with planets have born. Distance 1300 light years. The Crab nebula M1 exploded as a supernova in year 1054. Now there is a fast rotating neutron star in the center. In the center of Rosette nebula there is a new star cluster. Also the Pleiades M45 is an young star cluster. Betelgeuze is a red giant star, which can explode as a supernova whenever.

Objects in constellations of Ursa Major, Canes Venatici, Leo and Virgo. In this area there is a lot of galaxies and galaxy clusters. The Virgo galaxy cluster is closest cluster to us, and actually our Milky Way galaxy and M31 and M33 are at the edge of the Virgo cluster. The Virgo cluster is dominated with giant elliptic galaxies M87, M86 and M84. The Coma galaxy cluster Abell 1656 is in distance of 321 million light years. The galaxy M82 has often supernova explosions. The distance to quasar 3C-273 is 2.4 billion light years.

Objects in constellations of Hercules, Bootes, Draco, Serpens and Ophiuchus. In this area there is spectacular globular star clusters M13, M92, M5 ja M3. There is typically several hundred thousand stars in globular clusters. The clusters are very old. They were born at same time as our Milky Way galaxy, about 10 billion years ago.

Objects in constellations of Sagittarius, Scorpion and Centaurus. Images were taken at Gran Canaria 11th of June 2013. The center of Milky Way galaxy is visible here. The Trifid and Lagoon nebulae are birth places of stars. In Centauri there is globular cluster Omega Centauri, with one million stars. The closest star Alpha Centauri is marked to the picture. It is a triple star system, and the star Proxima has an Earth like planet in zone of life.