Gallery: LYRA's very own APOD

Here you can find some of the wonderful pictures of sky objects taken by our members, ranging from atmospheric effects down here on Earth to the farthest reaches of deep space - and everything in between! Pictures are displayed at random, and members (members only - one benefit of joining LYRA!) are now able to upload their own pictures from the members only page - please read the instructions there, because we can accept only .jpg images for reasons of space (sorry!) To see a different picture, just reload the page! (F5 on most browsers)

Michael Poxon: Elephants Trunk Nebula



OK, a confession. I don't do imaging, and I didn't take this picture. But I do study star formation, and this nebula, IC1396, is a serious starforming region. I am currently observing the young variable star GM Cephei, which is in the process of forming a planetary system. I have also indicated a couple of other young variable stars. This whole nebula is made to shine purely by the intense high-energy radiation from the bright triple star near the top. When we have more contributions, I will remove 'my' image!