Most Detailed Infrared Image of the Carina Nebula

ESO’s Very Large Telescope has delivered the most detailed infrared image of the Carina Nebula stellar nursery taken so far. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars, have emerged. This is one of the most dramatic images ever created by the VLT. Deep in the heart of the southern Milky Way lies a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula. It is about 7500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Carina.

The Moon

THIS full moon picture sent in by Andrew Sharp was taken using a Canon DSLR with a 55-250mm telephoto lens. Andrew took this shot using just his camera and lens mounted on a photographic tripod, exposure for the shot was 1/250. This image illustrates the fact that you do not need an armoury of telescopic equipment to start taking pictures of our nearest celestial neighbour. Well done Andrew and thanks for sending us this weeks image to the North Wales Astronomy Society

Rare Cloud Formation

This is a rare meteorological phenomenon called a skypunch. When people see these, they think it’s the end of the world. Ice crystals form above the high-altitude cirro-cumulo-stratus clouds, then fall downward, punching a hole in the cloud cover. Freakishly weird! Cr Terry Boswell c/o FB