Amateur astronomer captures stunning photos of distant nebulas from a telescope in his East Ayrshire back garden – including an incredible shot of the Orion Nebula, 1,344 light years away
- Bryan Shaw, 28, spent hours tracking the night sky to produce stunning images from his New Cumnock home
- Highlights include Orion Nebula 1,344 light years from Earth and Rosette Nebula, over 5,000 light years away
- Shaw has also captured beautiful landscape images featuring aurora and views of our galaxy, the Milky Way
A Scottish amateur astronomer has captured stunning photos of distant nebulas and other astronomical marvels from a telescope in his East Ayrshire garden.
Bryan Shaw, 28, has spent hours tracking the night sky to produce stunning images of the nebulas and star clusters thousands of light years away.
Shaw, who is currently a broadcast production student, routinely sets up his specialised telescope in the garden of his home in New Cumnock, a town in East Ayrshire, to snap the night’s sky.
Highlights include the Orion Nebula, around 1,344 light years from Earth, and the Rosette Nebula, an open star cluster with rose-like cosmic clouds of gas and dust more than 5,000 light years away.
He has also captured beautiful landscape images featuring aurora, a close-up of our moon, and views of galaxies including our Milky Way.
The North America Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb. The shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico
The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth
The surface of the Moon is covered in huge dark spots, visible from Earth even with the naked eye. These patches are known as maria – a Latin word meaning ‘seas’
Like many other galaxies, the Whirlpool Galaxy (pictured) has a supermassive black hole at its heart, surrounded by rings of dust
Bryan Shaw, 28, is a broadcast production student and amateur astronomer based in New Cumnock, a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland
HOW IS A NEBULA FORMED?
Planetary nebulae are formed when a star larger than our sun starts to die and gives off a solar-wind of gas.
As it grows older the wind becomes more violent and clashes with fragments of old star, forming strange shapes.
Later, the outer layers of the star are blown off and expose the star’s hot core, which lights up the surrounding gas and causes the eerie glow.
Only once the glowing begins is the nebula visible to Earth.
Factors such as how the star spins, what angle it is viewed at and the chemical composition of the gas affect the shape of the nebula.
One shot shows the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb.
It gets its name from the fact that, in visible light, the region resembles the North American continent, with the most striking resemblance being the Gulf of Mexico.
A nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas occupying the space between stars and acting as a nursery for new stars.
Nebulae are formed when a star larger than our sun starts to die and gives off a solar-wind of gas.
Shaw also captured a shot of the Rosette Nebula on March 4 and posted it to a local community group the next day.
He said: ‘Clear nights are rare so, I shot this from the front garden last night under the street lights.’
Another one of Shaw’s incredible nebula shots shows the Orion Nebula, a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion.
It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky.
Of the Orion Nebula, NASA says: ‘This stellar nursery has been known to many different cultures throughout human history.
Another image shows the Flame Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula, both part of a star-forming region called the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.
The Horsehead Nebula is so-called because of its remarkable resemblance to a tiny horse, as seen against a deep red, which is due to ionised hydrogen gas.
Nebulas are often named based on what scientists perceive as similarities with Earth-based objects or characters, including a cat’s paw, a tarantula and a veil.
This photo shows Shaw’s back garden telescope set-up
Astronomers have also perceived a black widow spider, a Hallowe’en lantern, a snake, an exposed human brain, and the Starship Enterprise, among other things.
Other shots show the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or M31, which is the closest large spiral galaxy to our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Andromeda Galaxy gets its name from the fact it appears in the Earth sky in the constellation of Andromeda.
It was first observed around 964 and originally dubbed a nebulous smear. It wasn’t until the 1920s that it became known as a galaxy.
It is roughly the same size as the Milky Way – one trillion solar masses – and one day the two will collide. They are expected to come together in about 4.5 billion year and form a giant elliptical galaxy.
Another image shows an asterism called the Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and other names by different cultures.
The Pleiades, around 440 light years away, is positioned near the shoulder of Taurus, the larger constellation to the right of Orion’s Belt.
NASA says: ‘It contains over a thousand stars that are loosely bound by gravity, but it is visually dominated by a handful of its brightest members.’
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to our galaxy, the Milky Way
Shaw has also captured a beautiful landscape shot of the auroras – the spectacular light shows seen at night and caused by the Sun.
The displays light up the skies when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Northern Lights – also known as the aurora borealis – is predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic).
Aurora over Scottish landscape. There are two types of Aurora – Aurora Borealis, which means ‘dawn of the north’, and Aurora Australis, ‘dawn of the south’. The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth’s atmosphere
The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and other names, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus
WHAT ARE AURORAS AND WHAT TRIGGERS THE STUNNING NATURAL DISPLAYS?
The Northern and Southern Lights are natural light spectacles triggered in our atmosphere that are also known as the ‘Auroras’.
There are two types of Aurora – Aurora Borealis, which means ‘dawn of the north’, and Aurora Australis, ‘dawn of the south.’
The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
There are two types of Aurora – Aurora Borealis (file photo), which means ‘dawn of the north’, and Aurora Australis, ‘dawn of the south.’ The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth’s atmosphere
Usually the particles, sometimes referred to as a solar storm, are deflected by Earth’s magnetic field.
But during stronger storms they enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles, including hydrogen and helium.
These collisions emit light. Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are common.
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