Paul Bracken

New product! 🚀 Our 16"x24" Deep Space Wall Displays are live. Choose: vibrant metal (my fav!) or luminous pearl paper. Blog post shows the new 'floating' mount options: bracken-observatory.com/blogs/news/w... #Astrophotography #Astrodon #Space #WallArt

To celebrate the spooky season!—Get 20% OFF our premium metal prints of the Witch's Broom or the Ghost! These high-gloss prints really make the colors pop and are the perfect, stunning piece for any space-lover's wall.
Offer vanishes Nov 2.
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Bracken Observatory | Deep Space Astrophotography & Gifts Explore the cosmos from our backyard observatory. Shop stunning deep space photo prints, space-themed apparel, gifts, books, and more.

Bracken Observatory is open for business! Browse our collection and download any full-resolution image for free - just by clicking on it. Grab a calendar or a glass-print of one of our lovely space vistas. Keep up with all the latest news from the dome. Enjoy!
#astronomy
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This image of the Dumbbell Nebula gives us a glimpse of what our Sun may become when it runs out of fuel in the distant future. We're seeing the death throes of an aging star, expelling its outer layers into an expanding shell of debris - its final farewell to the galaxy.
#astronomy
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We're looking at the tail-end of the witch's broom - part of the Veil Nebula within the larger Cygnus Loop. The shock wave from a supernova explosion provides more than enough energy to ionize the oxygen in the debris, resulting in the lovely blue strands visible here.
#astronomy
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This is C7, a spiral galaxy 12 million light years from here. It's a little smaller than our own galaxy, with a diameter of 80,000 light years. Seen from Earth, C7 is tilted at a rather pleasant angle toward us, which I think accentuates its lovely spiral arms.
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Cygnus wall region of North American Nebula

My first attempt at f/11 photography with the EdgeHD 14" telescope. Imaging at such a long focal length presented some new challenges, but I think the result is promising. This is a close-up of the Cygnus Wall - an area of star formation within the North American Nebula.

Dwarf star K2-18. One of its planets may harbor life.

Red dwarf K2-18 may harbor extraterrestrial life. It's the home star of the first habitable-zone planet found to have water along with an atmosphere that shows signs of life. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of it. You'll need to zoom in to see it.
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The iconic Horsehead, clearly silhouetted against a beautiful scarlet curtain of ionized hydrogen alpha.
At just 1500 light years, it's quite amenable to being photographed. Requiring minimal processing, it looks like a work of art right out of the gate.
#astronomy
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Explosions of the kind that gave birth to this Jellyfish are the means by which atoms are manufactured and distributed into the cosmos - a process essential for the development of planetary systems and the evolution of life. Without these nebulae, we wouldn't exist.
#astronomy
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The Fossil Footprint contains a number of massive stars whose UV radiation ionizes the hydrogen clouds making them glow brightly. I especially love the bright yellow walls at the top, formed when gases are compressed by shock waves - real gates of heaven stuff!
#astrophotography
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IC 410 Tadpoles & IC 417 Spider Nebula

The tadpoles swimming in the lower left are areas of dense nebulous material that's been excavated by radiation from the central star cluster. Star formation regions in the Spider (top center) include oval clumps and knotted strands in the surrounding bluish gas clouds.
#astrophotography
#astronomy

At the suggestion of astronomer Paul Bailey, I added a small batch of 30-sec exposures. This made the core less blown-out, while preserving detail in the darker regions. Whoever said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

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#astrophotography

M42 - Great Orion Nebula

At 1,344 light years away, the Orion Nebula is the closest big star factory to Earth, making it one of the brightest deep space objects in the sky. It can even be seen with the naked eye, as a hazy patch of light surrounding the middle star in Orion's sword.
#astrophotography
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Message from Jimmy Carter, attached to the Voyager 1 spacecraft. "This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe."

Voyager 1, our small interstellar emissary is now more distant than any other human-made object. It carries this message from President Jimmy Carter.

#JimmyCarter

NGC 2264 - Christmas Tree Cluster

For my last astronomy post of 2024, I wanted to close out the holiday with something especially festive - and I think this image of the Christmas Tree Cluster fits the bill.
I refrained from making the stars blink on and off.
Happy New Year, everyone!
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#astrophotography #astronomy

NGC 2264 - Christmas Tree Cluster

For my last astronomy post of 2024, I wanted to close out the holiday with something especially festive - and I think this image of the Christmas Tree Cluster fits the bill. The stars in the cluster are very young - only about one or two million years old.
Happy New Year, everyone!
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Former President Jimmy Carter leans on a wall as he helps build a Habitat for Humanity house in Violet, La., in 2007. (Alex Brandon/AP)

President Jimmy Carter was an American hero and a model of compassion, wisdom, and fortitude. May his memory be a blessing.

Made myself a molecule today. Sweet!

Butterfly Nebula in the Sadr region of the sky.

The dark nebula running up the middle forms the butterfly's body, with the bright wings stretching out to the sides in a sort of teal color. Some lovely star clusters are distributed around the nebula like colorful glistening pearls, and more than a match for any holiday decorations!
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🤌

I will *never* be able to see eye-to-eye with people who thought those who backed an insurrectionist riot still belonged anywhere near the halls of government.

The meme I didn't know I needed

M81 - Bode's Galaxy

When I processed this photo, I was surprised to see a lot of wispy web-like filaments throughout the image. It turns out this is a real phenomenon, called the IFN - Integrated Flux Nebula. It's caused by the glow of light from the Milky Way reflecting off tenuous extragalactic strands of dust.

Now is the time to take climate action and protect the rainforest 🌳 🌍

Gilgamesh in the 21st Century A scientific exploration of what it means to be mortal, and what our fate may be.

The critical-thinking apparatus of science provides us with our most powerful tool for separating truth from nonsense, but it is increasingly ignored by the bunkum folks of today, who often deliberately choose to be uninformed, while they recklessly promote disinformation.
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The Pleiades.

In Greek mythology this star cluster represents seven sisters – the daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Just like the sisters, the stars themselves are siblings, traveling through space together having formed from the same stellar nursery about 100 million years ago.
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M33, Triangulum Galaxy

At 2.7 million light years away, the Triangulum Galaxy is the most distant object that can be seen without the aid of a telescope. Star forming regions show up in this image as reddish-pink blotches.
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