Though visible to the naked eye as a faint star, M 5 is a globular star cluster made up of over 100,000 stars:

Back to nebulae today. When you gaze into space, does the Iris Nebula gaze back at you?

There are two galaxy groups in today’s image, the first being the NGC 7331 Group, made up of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331 that dominates the center of the image, and smaller galaxies visually (though not spatially) near it. In the upper right is Stephan’s Quintet, another visual grouping of galaxies.

The focus today is on the Eagle Nebula, part of Sunday’s image, but this time rendered in OSH narrowband:

Just up and to the right of yesterday’s image is the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, a celestial jewel box of differently-colored stars and nebulae:

This is a section of the Milky Way near Sagittarius. Some prominent nebulae that can be spotted include the Eagle Nebula near the top center, the Omega Nebula below that, and the Trifid Nebula near the bottom center.

This is Messier 106, a spiral galaxy, along with some neighboring galaxies:

Some photos from a trip to New York City, including the sun setting over its fire escape-lined apartment buildings,

the moon rising over a constellation of lights,

and neon colors softly illuminating a city that never sleeps.

This is the M 66 group, also alled the Leo Triplet, which consists of three galaxies in the Leo constellation: the Hamburger Galaxy (NGC 3628, left), M 65 (right top), and M 66 (right bottom):

I made a return trip to Banff this past month, where again I am awed by the majesty of the Canadian Rockies. But where there were verdant greens and aquamarine lakes when I last visited in summer, now there are dramatic snowscapes and waterfalls in suspended animation. Both seasons are beautiful in their own way, but the contrast is striking.

Mount Rundle as seen from downtown Banff in the winter versus the summer:

Johnston Canyon in the winter versus the summer:

Lake Louise in the winter versus the summer: