Monthly Archive: July 2013

M 2

M 2 – Aqr

Messier 2 is one of the deep sky wonders of Aquarius. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and its stars were firstly recognized by William Herschel in 1783. M 2 is located at about 37.000...

M 15

M 15 – Peg

Globular clusters are famous for their high concentration of stars: think of the cosmic void, then meet these regions with up to a million of stars so closely packed together by gravity and you...

M 57

M 57, the “Ring Nebula”: a new color view

  After some time of stop, we took a new color image with our Celestron C14 robotic unit, to test the Baader Planetarium RGB filters we installed on the telescope, upgrading from the previous...

M 56

M 56 – Lyr

In the small constellation of Lyra, the one hosting the bright star Vega, there is the interesting and somewhat neglected globular cluster Messier 56. Apparently close to M 57, this little gem was discovered...

Messier 20, the "Trifid" nebula

M 20, the “Trifid Nebula” – Sgr

  Undoubtedly among the most beautiful diffuse nebulae in the sky, Messier 20 is a remarkable deep sky object, with a breathtaking color combination, ranging from blue to deep red and purple: this is...

Supernova SN 2013di in NGC 7321

Supernova SN 2013di in NGC 7321

On 17 June, 2013, the Virtual Telescope main, robotic  unit (PlaneWave 17″) imaged this supernova candidate, collecting three, 300-seconds images. The object appeared very well. At that time, the supernova was undesigned, our observations...

M 57 in HaRGB

M 57, the “Ring Nebula” – Lyr

The amazing Messier 57 planetary nebula has been imaged several times from the Virtual Telescope robotic facility. Sure, it is one of the most spectacular deep sky objects, easy to see even from live...