Deep Nebulas: From Seagull to California
How well do you know the night sky? OK, but how well can you identify famous sky objects in a very deep image? Either way, here is a test: see if you can find some well-known night-sky icons in a deep image filled with faint nebulosity. This image contains the Pleiades star cluster , Barnard's Loop , Horsehead Nebula , Orion Nebula , Rosette Nebula , Cone Nebula , Rigel , Jellyfish Nebula , Monkey Head Nebula , Flaming Star Nebula , Tadpole Nebula , Aldebaran , Simeis 147 , Seagull Nebula and the California Nebula . To find their real locations, here is an annotated image version . The reason this task might be difficult is similar to the reason it is initially hard to identify familiar constellations in a very dark sky : the tapestry of our night sky has an extremely deep hidden complexity . The featured composite reveals some of this complexity in a mosaic of 28 images taken over 800 hours from dark skies over Arizona , USA .