Public Viewing Evening Tuesday, 8th September
Still On - But may need to watch the Weather.
Whakatane Observatory
boy! have we got a universe
to show you
explore the Moon
check out the planets in our
solar system
School Groups are welcome
want to learn how to use
a telescope?
become a member and meet
the visitors to our area
Public Viewings
open Tuesday and Friday nights.
Astronomical Information
Tonight at Whakatāne Observatory
Moon
Planets visible tonight
Good telescope & binocular targets
Local Sidereal Time
--h --m --s
The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars
The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070 (an official designation) is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The deep featured picture from Utah, USA incorporates 25 hours of exposure and brings out great details of this filamentary dust. The Pelican Nebula receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two, known as an ionization front, visible in bright orange on the upper right. Particularly dense tentacles of cold gas remain. Millions of years from now, the Pelican Nebula, bounded by dark nebula LDN 935, might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will surely leave something that appears completely different. APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod