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- GREAT BALL OF FIRE
The Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405)
occupies the upper right part of this
wide-field image. IC 410 is the smaller
emission nebula at bottom left. Both
lie in the constellation Auriga. IC 405
glows red because of AE Aurigae, the
brightest star in the nebula. Note the
two bright gaseous “tadpoles” within
IC 410. Ultraviolet radiation from the
young star cluster NGC 1893 carved
their shapes. • Jon Talbot - POINTS OF VIEW
Face-on spiral M77 floats through
space with edge-on spiral NGC 1055
some 60 million light-years away in
the constellation Cetus the Whale. The
galaxies are quite similar except for
the way they align to our view. As a
bonus, one shot of the 44¾ hours of
exposures needed to create this image
shows a Geminid meteor’s trail quite
close to NGC 1055. • Mark Hanson - THE GIANT MOVES
These two images of Jupiter, taken
from Cebu, Philippines, show the
planet’s rotation from 20h40m UT (top)
to 21h30m UT. The Great Red Spot is
easy to see, as are many bright belts
and dark bands. • Christopher Go - LUCKY STREAKS
The Geminid meteors are captured in
this composite image taken December
13 and 14, 2017. The photographer
then combined those exposures with
a nighttime shot of Truckee, California,
near where the meteor exposures were
taken. • Daphne Hallas
Send your images to:
Astronomy Reader Gallery, P. O. Box
1612, Waukesha, WI 53187. Please
include the date and location of the
image and complete photo data:
telescope, camera, filters, and
exposures. Submit images by email
6 to [email protected].
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