Orion and Taurus set in the west with the crescent Moon passing by M45, the Pleiades. This is a wide-field image shot with an 18mm lens. The next image shows what the Moon and M45 look like through a telescope.
The crescent Moon with Earthshine passes near M45, The Pleiades. This is the same time as the previous image, but shot with a telescop of 612mm focal length which magnifies the image, but has a smaller field of view..
The crescent Moon sets over the Philadellphia skyline on April 1, 2014.
ATREX rocket upper-atmosphere experiment.
The constellation of Orion rises over fog on the Mullica River in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.
Full moon, lightning, Sierra Nevada mountains, California.
The colorful stars of orion set behing a tree in the spring.
The Space Shuttle Discovery (brighter streak) and International Space Station (fainter streak) look like bright stars moving in the sky from the Big Dipper into Leo as they pass over New Jersey at 7:00:17 p.m. EST on Monday March 7, 2011.<br /><br />The brighter ISS, shinging at magnitude -3, trails the fainter Discovery by about 12 seconds after the shuttle undocked from the ISS earlier in the day, heading back to a landing on Earth to end its final mission in space.
Two Iridium satellites "flare" together as they pass through Ursa Minor. The flares are caused by direct sunlight reflecting off of mirrored parts of the communications satellites.
August 10, 2014 perigee full moon.
The Moon, Mars, and Venus are reflected in the still waters of the Mullica River in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey during morning twilight.
Lunar Craters Copernicus and Eratosthenes.
Crescent Moon with Earthshine.
The young crescent Moon is seen on February 3, 2011 when it was just 20 hours and 23 minutes old.
December 21, 2010 Solstice Total Lunar Eclipse in Taurus.
The International Space Station can be seen as a tiny black dot just above the center of the Moon as the ISS transits.
Sunrise, Pine Mountain Vista. Pine Hill Summit, Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania, 2,175 feet above sea level.
The Sun rises partially eclipsed out of a cloud bank over the Atlantic ocean on November 3, 2013 in this multiple exposure digital composite image.
The International Space Station (ISS), with its new solar arrays, transits across the face of the Sun on July 8, 2007 at 14h 49m 54.40s EDT Sunspot group 963 is also visible on the eastern limb of the Sun, just rotating on.
The International Space Station with the Space Shuttle Atlantis docked transit across the face of the Sun on July 17, 2011 at 8:09:20.10 a.m. EDT. Transit-Duration: 1.42s, path width: 9.48km, Diameter of ISS: 33.80 arc seconds. Observed from Philadelphia, PA, USA at Longitude: -75d00m08.4s Latitude: +40d07m34.8s.
20120712 Solar Prominence.
Seen in narrowband hydrogen-alpha light, sunspot group AR 1520 releases an X1.4-class solar flare and coronal mass ejection on July 12, 2012 at 1653 UT.
Mercury transits across the Sun on May 9, 2016. This image was shot in narrowband hydrogen-alpha light.
The atmosphere of Venus is visible as a short arc refracting sunlight and completing the circle of the silhouette of Venus as it egresses the Sun during the 2004 transit of Venus.
The subtle and ethereal beauty of the corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere, is seen in a High-Dynamic-Range composite image of the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 from Bandit Springs, Oregon in the United States.
Venus, Jupiter, Mercury in appulse.<br />Copyright 2013 Jerry Lodriguss.
Jupiter and the Great Red Spot, and its moons Callisto and Ganymede, are seen here.
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
Venus is seen on June 7, 2012, 42 hours after transiting the Sun. Sunlight diffusing through the atmosphere of the planet is visible almost 360 degrees around because it is backlit, extremely close to the Sun.
Venus and Jupiter rise in conjunction as the sky reddens from the coming sunrise on August 18, 2014.
Venus and Jupiter hang together in conjunction on August 18, 2014 above the fog on the cranberry bogs in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.
Two young brothers watch comet Hale-Bopp set on April 1, 1997, the day of perihelion, the comet's closest approach to the Sun.
Halley's Comet's tail stretches to the Teapot in Sagittarius on March 22, 1986 at 10:50 UT.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy on January 10, 2015.
A meteor burns up as a fireball and leaves a smoke trail during the Leonid Meteor Storm on November 18, 2001.
A major disconnection event in the ion tail of Comet Hyakutake is seen next to Galaxy M101 in Ursa Major. The ion tail can actually disconnect from the comet when the comet crosses a region of different polarity in the magnetic field of the sun. A new ion tail begins forming immediately leaving the disconnected tail behind.<br /><br />This photo was taken at 08:23 UT on March 25th, just a little more than an hour after the comet's closest approach to Earth. The comet passed 15 million kilometers away, just 40 times farther than the distance to the Moon.
Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) and Crescent Moon with Earthshine on March 12, 2013.
Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) passes near M31, the Andromeda Galaxy on the morning of April 2, 2013.
Self-portrait by Jerry Lodriguss with Orion, the Hyades, Venus, and the Pleiades setting in the west.
Summer Milky Way Rising - Cherry Springs, May 2012.
The Taurus Molecular cloud.
LDN 673, Dark Nebula in Aquila.
Blue reflection nebulae VdB 150 and VdB 149, and dark nebula LDN 1235 (at upper left) in Cepheus.
Dark nebulae B72, the Snake Nebula (right) and B75 (left) are amoung many dark nebulae in this area in Ophiuchus.
Van den Bergh 152, also known as Cederblad 201, is a blue reflection nebula at top left in the image. The large dark nebula stretching through the frame is Barnard 175, a Bok Globule. This complex, also called Wolf's Cave, is located about 1,400 light years away in the direction of the constellation of Cepheus.<br /><br />Full of very faint dust, this area is part of a large molecular cloud named the Cepheus Flare by Edwin Hubble. The opaque dust blocks most of the starlight behind it, but blue light from a young star is scattered and reflected off some of the particles to illuminate the reflection part of the nebula. Some of the faint dust may be glowing in a dim red color from luminescence, forming an Extended Red Emission nebula (ERE).
NGC 457, The Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia.
Kemble's Cascade and open cluster NGC 1502 in Camelopardalis.
NGC 869 and NGC 884, The Double Cluster in Perseus.
M35 is a spectacular large open cluster containing about 200 stars located in Gemini about 2,800 light years from us. In this image it takes up most of the top left of the frame. Shining at magnitude 5 and with an apparent size as large as the full Moon at 30 arc minutes, it is visible to the unaided eye as a diffuse object off the foot of Gemini. M35 is a relatively young cluster estimated to be about 150 million years old.<br /><br />It is accompanied by a golden jewel-like smaller companion, open cluster NGC 2158, located about 15 arc minutes to the southwest of M35. It is seen at the lower right of the photo. NGC 2158 contains more stars and is more compact than M35. It shines at about magnitude 8.6 and is about 5 arc minutes in angular diameter. It is located 4 or 5 times more distant than M35 and is estimated to be about 1 to 1.5 billion years old. At this age, most of the hot blue stars are gone, leaving mostly older yellow stars.
Globular Cluster M22 is located in the constellation of Sagittarius.
The winter sky from Sirius to M45, the Pleaides. Huge red nebulae as giant clouds of hydrogen gas in the Orion Molecular Cloud.
A Geminid Meteor streaks through the constellation of Orion during the peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower.
Thera Orionis, The Trapezium multiple star system in the heart of M42, The Orion Nebula.
The Hyades open star cluster, Mel 25, is located in the constellation of Taurus.
M45, The Pleaides.
SH2-276, Barnard's Loop, M78, B33, Horsehead Nebula, NGC 2024, Flame Nebula, LDN 1622, Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka.
B33, M42, M78 area in Orion.
The Horsehead Nebula, B33, is the dark nebula in front of the bright red emission nebula IC 434. Along with the Orion Nebula, these nebulae near the Horsehead are part of a very large complex that is a stellar nursery where stars are forming out of the dust and gas. Located about 1,500 light years away, this complex is the closest star forming region to our own solar system. The Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, is to the lower left of Alnitak, Zeta Orionis, the easternmost star in the three distinctive stars in the Hunter's belt of Orion, and the brightest star in this photo. To the lower left of the Horsehead is the blue reflection nebula NGC 2023. Dark Nebulae are clouds of dust in space that obscure the stars behind them. Emission nebulae are clouds of glowing ionized gas. Reflection nebulae do not shine by their own light, but are visible because they reflect the light of nearby stars.
VdB 142, the Elephant Trunk, is a Bok globule in a complex of light and dark nebulae in Cepheus.
NGC 206 is a large star forming region in one of the outer spiral arms of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Also known as OB 78, this stellar association is made up of hot young type O and type B stars that are only 10 to 20 million years old. In his article The Association OB 78 in the Andromeda Nebula in the Astronomical Journal, Sidney van den Bergh cataloged more than 100 of the brightest stars in NGC 206, measuring their brightness and color. Most are V magnitude 18 and 19. The brighter members, down to about 19th magnitude, are seen in the center of the image above. <br /><br />Almost all of the brighter stars in this image are foreground stars that are members of our own Milky Way galaxy that just happen to lie along the same line of sight as NGC 206. The fainter blue stars in NGC 206 are actually blue giants inside of M31 that are resolved at a distance of about 2.5 million light years away. Brighter background areas in the rest of the image are unresolved stars in the spiral arms of M31. Darker areas are obscuring dust lanes in M31 that block the light of stars behind them.
The Summer Triangle is comprised of the bright stars Vega (top left), Deneb (bottom left), and Altair (right center).
The shadowy filaments of Le Gentil 3, a very large dark nebula complex, fill the area of sky in the center of the frame between Deneb and the North America Nebula in Cygnus at left and Herschel's Garnet Star and IC 1396 in Cepheus at right. <br /><br />Le Gentil 3 is named after the French observer Guillaume-Joseph-Hyacinthe-Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de la Galaziere, who observed and cataloged it in the 1700s.
The Vulpecula Milky Way.
The Milky Way stretches from Perseus at upper left to Scorpius at lower right in this panorama image.
The center of the Milky Way, our own galaxy, is seen here with Sagittarius and Scutum at left, and Scorpius at right.
M20, The Trifid Nebula.
M17, The Omega, or Swan, Nebula.
Dark Nebulae in Sagittarius and Scorpius.
Rho Ophiuchus - Antares Region in Scorpius.
IC 4592, The Blue Horsehead Nebula.
The Northern Milky Way from Cygnus to Cassiopeia.
VdB 14 and VdB 15 are two nebulae in Camelopardalis near the border of Cassiopeia and Perseus.
Nine planetary nebulae.
The Helix Nebula.
NGC 2359 is Thor's Helmet, a nebula around a Wolf-Rayet star in Canis Major.
Simeis 147 Supernova Remnant in Taurus.
The Veil Nebula is a supernova remnant in Cygnus.
NGC 6992 / 6995 - The Veil Nebula is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred about 5 - 10,000 years ago. It is located 1,400 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus. NGC 6992/95 is the brighter eastern half of the nebula.
Galaxy NGC 891 is an edge-on spiral galaxy bisected by a dark lane. It is located in the constellation of Andromeda.
Galaxy M51, the Whirlpool galaxy in Canes Venatici.
Galaxy M101, The Pinwheel, in Ursa Major.
M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum.
NGC 7331 is the large spiral galaxy at upper right, and Stephan's Quintet is a compact galaxy group at lower left.
Galaxies M81, M82 are seen through the extrememly faint Integrated Flux Nebula in Ursa Major. This is 28 hours total exposure (my personal record) at f/2.8 from MPASS 20.5 skies.
NGC 3628 Tidal Tail with M65 and M66.
The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies with Markarian's Chain starting at lower right.
Abell 426, The Perseus Galaxy Cluster.
M31, The Andromeda Galaxy.
The Supermoon of November 14, 2016 sets as dawn lights up the buildings of the Philadelphia skyline.
Equipment for a single night of astrophotography at a local observing site. 18 cases and 1,200 pounds of equipment.
John Martinez (left) and Jerry Lodriguss with the 12-inch f/4 Clement Newtonian on the Teledrive mount in Picayune, Mississippi in 1986.
Astrophotographer Jerry Lodriguss and his Astro-Physic's 130 EDT f/8 Triplet Apochromatic Refractor on an astrophotography expedition to the wilds of Arizona in 1988. Losmandy GM 100 EQ mount, 80mm guidescope for manual guiding (yes, this is when men were men and had to manually guide multiple-hour-long exposures). Nikon F3 film camera.
AP 130 EDT f/8 Triplet Apochromatic Refractor on an astrophotography expedition to Massai Point, Arizona in 1993. Losmandy GM 100 EQ mount, Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-4 autoguider, 80mm guidescope. Nikon F3 film camera.
AP130EDT, AP 600E mount, 80mm guidescope, ST-4 autoguider, Nikon F3 film camera. DelMarVa star party, 2007.
Stellarvue SV70ED, Orion Sirius Mount, Canon 100D DSLR camera. DelMarVa star party, 2009.
AP 130EDF-GT, Takahashi EM200 mount, AT65EDQ guidescope, Lodestar autoguider, Canon T2i DSLR camera. Cherry Springs, 2014.
Celestron C11 Edge, Takahashi EM200 mount, Canon T2i DSLR camera. My driveway 2011.
AP 130EDF-GT, Paramount POS mount, AT65EDQ guidescope, Lodestar autoguider. Canon T3i, Nikon D5300 cameras, Steelmantown, 2015.
AP 130EDF-GT, AP Mach-1 GTO mount, AT65EDQ guidescope, Lodestar X2 autoguider, Canon T5i DSLR and Nikon Z6 digital cameras. My stuido, 2016.