Messier 8 - The Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius - 2 minute exposure using the PIRATE telescope and BVR filters. The Autonomous Robotic Telescope - Mount Teide - Canary Isles. Credit: telescope.org - Open University.

"The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light-years from the Earth. In the sky of Earth, it spans 90' by 40', which translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. Like many nebulas, it appears pink in time-exposure color photos but is gray to the eye peering through binoculars or a telescope, human vision having poor color sensitivity at low light levels. The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material), the most prominent of which have been catalogued by E. E. Barnard as B88, B89 and B296. It also includes a funnel-like or tornado-like structure caused by a hot O-type star that emanates ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula. The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (so named by John Herschel), which should not be confused with the better known Hourglass Nebula in the constellation of Musca. In 2006 the first four Herbig–Haro objects were detected within the Hourglass, also including HH 870. This provides the first direct evidence of active star formation by accretion within it.^{" 
Credit: Wikipedia}

The Hourglass Nebula at the centre of the Lagoon Nebula - enlargement from the 2 min. PIRATE telescope image.

 

Messier 4 in the Scorpion

Image taken with the PIRATE Telescope on Mount Teide - Canary Islands. Credit -The Autonomous Telescope. Open University -  telescope.org.

In mid-summer, this beautiful globular star cluster may be glimpsed from the UK in the southern horizon hugging constellation - Scorpius the Scorpion.  Messier 4 is located just to the west of the red super giant star Antares.  It is aproximately 75 light years in diameter and is at a distance of 7200 light years. It is an ancient cluster of stars and contains white dwarfs with an individual estimated age of 13 billion years.  Pulsars have been found within this stellar structure, including a pulsar in a binary pair with a white dwarf.

'Witch's Broom' The Western Veil Nebula - NGC6960

Image taken with the PIRATE Telescope on Mount Teide - Canary Islands. Credit -The Autonomous Telescope. Open University -  telescope.org.

The image was taken using sulphur, hydrogen and oxygen filters. The sulphur II was pasted into the red channel, the hydrogen alpha into the green channel and the Oxygen III into the blue channel. (The Hubble Palette)

'The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103), a large but relatively faint supernova remnant. The source supernova exploded circa 3,000 BC to 6,000 BC, and the remnants have since expanded to cover an area roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, or 36 times the area, of the full moon). The distance to the nebula is not precisely known, but Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) data supports a distance of about 1,470 light-years.^'
Credit -Wikipedia

We saw this nebula for the first time about two years ago. We were enjoying the great hospitality and  company of Olly and Monique at Les Granges in the South of France. We balanced on a step ladder to look into the eyepiece of  Olly's monster Dobsonian Reflector. Wow what a sight! I nearly fell off the step ladder.

The Great Cluster in Hercules

Messier 13 - The Great Globular Star Cluster in the Constellation Hercules - Credit: Data obtained from 'The Autonomous Telescope' - Open University. Pirate Telescope a 17" PlaneWave CDK17 telescope with a FLI PL16803 CCD detector on Mount Teide

Our Galaxy - The Milky Way - has a retinue of satellite globular star clusters which sit within the galactic halo.  There are about 150 known globular star clusters gravitationally linked to the Milky Way.  A globular star cluster is a spherical collection of stars bound together by gravity. The distance between stars at their cores is measured in a few light years and anyone living on a planet orbiting one of them would have a night sky full of bright stars. The stars that make up globular clusters are very old and metal poor (comprised from Hydrogen and Helium and precious little else).

From the Earth's northern hemisphere and using little more than 10x40 binoculars, The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules is visible as a circular misty patch.  M13 has approximately 300,000 stars, arranged in a sphere with a diameter of 145 light years and is 25,100 light years distant from our Solar System.

In the 1970s the Arecibo Radio Telescope was used to send a signal announcing mankind's presence out towards the centre of the Great Globular Star Cluster.  If our species is still in existence we might receive a reply in 50,150 years time!

I  have always enjoyed looking through my telescope eye-piece at these ancient collections of stars. They are almost as old as the Universe itself, they are located far away in our Galaxy's suburbs, simultaneously - both massive and ephemeral in the dark night sky.

"Twinkle, twinkle sphere of  light

How I wonder at the sight

Above the disk of our Milky Way

Both cosmic close and far away

Twinkle, twinkle ball of light

Ancient starlight in the night"

Rotifer

Rotifer - mixed media - George Roberts June 2017

"Through a looking glass,

In a single water droplet

One of many rotifers

Plays out its short life

Whilst we stand witness".

Messier 28

The Globular Star Cluster Messier 28 in the constellation Sagittarius. Credit: Telescope.org The Autonmous Robotic Telescope - COAST Galaxy Camera BVR colour filters

This venerable globular cluster is too far south for me to image successfully from my backyard but I am able to use the Autonomous Robotic Telescope on Mount Teide in the Canary Islands to capture this beautiful grouping of ancient stars.

"M28 is at a distance of about 17,900 light-years away from Earth. It has a combined 551,000 times the mass of the Sun and is 12 billion years old. 18 RR Lyrae type variable stars have been observed in this cluster. In 1986, M28 became the first globular cluster where a millisecond pulsar, PSR B1821–24, was discovered with the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory. A total of 11 additional millisecond pulsars have since been detected in the cluster with the Green Bank Telescope. As of 2011, this is the third largest known population of pulsars in a cluster following Terzan 5 and 47 Tucanae". : Credit: Wikipedia

Pulsars are the dense remnants of stars that used up their nuclear fuel and consequentially suffered the gravitational collapse of their cores.  A pulsar is a highly magnetized and rotating neutron star or white dwarf that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation.  As the core spins the beam sweeps across space rather like the light beam from a lighthouse sweeps across the sea. From our perspective here on earth we witness a pulse of radiation evey time the beam is directed towards us. 


The first pulsar was observed on November 28, 1967, by Jocelyn Bell Burnell (now Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell) and Antony Hewish. For more information follow the links:
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question45.html

 

Arancini - Sicilian and Italian stuffed and fried rice balls

A squid stuffed and inked Aricino (singular) at Mercato Centrale, Via dell’Ariento, 50123 Firenze, Italy

 We purchased this tasty little morsel for a couple of Euros from the food market hall in Florence . It was a superb treat and an excellent accompaniment for a glass of chilled white wine!

Toot and I enjoyed many a fine meal in Tuscany but we would both recommend this venue to anyone visiting the marvellous city of Florence. The quality of the food is excellent and the 'value for money' is exceptional.

"Arancini ([aranˈtʃiːni], Italian and Sicilian plural; in the singular, Italian: arancino, Sicilian: arancinu or arancina) are stuffed rice balls which are coated with bread crumbs and then deep fried. They are usually filled with ragù (meat and tomato sauce), mozzarella, and peas.
A number of regional variants exist which differ in fillings and shape. The name, which is translated as "little orange", derives from their shape and colour, which is reminiscent of an orange after cooking. Arancini produced in eastern Sicily (especially in Catania) have a more conical shape". Credit: Wikipedia