When I step out onto my balcony and look East, I always have magnificent views. I look towards the ridge opposite my house in the Dandenong Ranges. There are frequent colorful sunrises that materialise behind the dead branches of a large tree jutting through the forest canopy. You’ll find a number of photos from my balcony with the tree top as subject (just see yesterday’s post).

I took this image some time ago and was struck by the contrast between the red rising sun and the black early morning sky. I then wondered, what would this view be like if we were much closer to other star systems. What if a nebula was a nearby neighbor? Here’s my minds eye of what that would look like. I’ve combined an image of nebula NGC 1333 with my tree view.

This image of NGC 1333 was taken using the Mosaic-1 imager and the National Science Foundation’s Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak. This star-forming region, located roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Perseus, harbors hundreds of newly formed stars less than one million years old. Many of these proto-stars exhibit energetic activity such as jets and strong stellar winds. NGC 1333 credit T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF

I created this out of a request that came from Drew at Benspark.com. Drew posted

“what I am looking for is to get as many photos of people from all over the world who are holding messages of hope. Think Good Morning America’s “Three Words”. I am going to compile those photos into a video set to music to give to the family. Hope is what is keeping this family going and hope is what I want to give them.”

Best wishes to the Machinski family … always look to the stars for hope and inspiration.

Call me an adult with an overactive imagination, a dreamer or a delusional geek but sometimes I just can’t help but wonder … What would my backyard look like if Earth was a little closer to the Orion Nebula?

Ah, now that’s worth pulling out the deck chairs and a pondering over a tequila sunrise.

Hubble’s Sharpest View of the Orion Nebula:
The Orion Nebula is a cavern of tumultuous gas and dust where thousands of stars are forming. The energy released by the young stars transforms their place of birth, whipping their surroundings into fantastic forms.

I would like to respectfully acknowledge Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation who are the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land I currently reside.

The use of traditional Australian Aboriginal painting techniques and symbols have opened a new vista to artistic expression for me when combined with deep space images.

Using traditional symbols, the image depicts the future dreaming of man leaving the cradle of humanity. The concentric circles represent the ‘campsites’ or colonies as man takes to the stars. Undulating patterns mirroring trials and tribulations persist in following the journey. The U shapes of mankind identify a new civilization emerging in the stars.

The background image is a Hubble Space Telescope shot of the Orion Nebula.

Created using the GIMP opensource image editing software

For more information on Aboriginal Painting or to view real Aboriginal artists work please visit:
www.aboriginalartonline.com/index.php
www.aboriginalart.org/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_art

Note: I am not of Aboriginal descent and do not claim to understand the complexities and full symbolism of traditional Aboriginal art. I hope that by learning more about the Aboriginal culture and art I can gain a greater appreciation and understanding.

This image was inspired by Dan Simmon’s book Hyperion. In it there is a planet called God’s Grove. God’s Grove is a forest planet, home of the Templars, whose worship of nature seeks to mold life to preserve and spread it throughout the galaxy. The Templars designed their star ships to look like giant trees.

High resolution images taken of Space are grand and majestic. However, few people have exposure to them. Occasionally I’ll develop a concept like this to utilize these powerful images. I do this for my own gratification but also to hopefully encourage more people to develop an appreciation and desire to learn more about objects in our heavens. The image above uses a Hubble Space Telescope shot of the Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south^[b] of Orion‘s Belt. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,270±76 light years^[2] and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. Older texts frequently referred to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula. Yet older, astrological texts refer to it as Ensis (Latin for “sword”), which was also the name given to the star Eta Orionis, which can be seen close to the nebula from Earth.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula.

If you get a chance, read some of Simmon’s books. He does an excellent job of blending classical literature with Science Fiction and also, take the time to look upward and appreciate the majesty of space.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NGC 3603 is visible in the telescope as a small rather insignificant nebulosity with a yellowish tinge due to the effects of interstellar absorption. In the mid-1960s optical studies coincided with radio astronomical observations which showed it to be an extremely strong thermal radio source. Later observations in other galaxies introduced the concept of ‘starburst’ regions, in some cases whole galaxies, of extremely rapid star formation and NGC 3603 is now considered to be such a region. In 1987 a supernova (known as SN 1987A) occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This was the first supernova to be close enough for detailed observation with satellite based telescopes. One result was the discovery that prior to the main explosion it had thrown off a relatively small amount of material in a very distinctive pattern, a bit like an hourglass perpendicular to a detached glowing ring. One star in NGC 3603 (Sher 25, the number comes from the 1960s optical observations) was found to have thrown off matter in a pattern similar to that found for the supernova 1987A. This coincidence has aroused intense interest.

NGC 3603 image – Hubble Space Telescope, NASA

Train pict credit: Me

Tarantua Nebula from the Astronomy Picture of the Day website

Tarantula Image Credit: WFI, MPG/ESO 2.2-m Telescope, La Silla, ESO
The largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies lies in our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Were the Tarantula Nebula at the distance of the Orion Nebula — a local star forming region — it would take up fully half the sky. Also called 30 Doradus, the red and pink gas indicates a massive emission nebula, although supernova remnants and dark nebula also exist there. The bright knot of stars left of center is called R136 and contains many of the most massive, hottest, and brightest stars known. The above image taken with the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Wide Field Imager is one of the most detailed ever of this vast star forming region. ESO has made it possible to fly around and into this detailed image by clicking here.

Ever wondered what it would be like to have a close-up view of a nebula from your backyard. Well, here’s mine.