In honor of the upcoming Star Wars Days “May the Fourth be with you” and “Revenge of the Sixth,” we have a special challenge for you! Unistellar Citizen Astronomers are invited to participate in this week’s quest to observe Star Wars themed celestial objects!
eVscope image captured by Unistellar Citizen Astronomer David Hein, from Australia
Baby Yoda Nebula
Recently given its Star Wars inspired nickname, the Baby Yoda Nebula is also known as the Thor’s Helmet Nebula (NGC 2359). It is an emission nebula, which is a cloud of dust and gas, often illuminated by a nearby star. In the center of this nebula lies an extremely hot and massive star, which is nearly 300 thousand times brighter than our Sun!
Quick Facts and Observing Tips:
- Distance from Earth: 12 thousand light years
- Constellation: Canis Major
- Search for “NGC 2359” or “Thor’s Helmet Nebula” in the Explore tab of the Unistellar app.
- This will be a harder challenge than usual because this nebula is rather faint.
- Since this is a challenging object, you may want to leave the Enhanced Vision mode on for at least 30 minutes, depending on the sky quality at your location.
- Recommended Bortle Class is 5 or lower.
eVscope image captured by Unistellar Citizen Astronomer Scott Kardel, from California
eVscope image captured by Unistellar Citizen Astronomer Gerd Waloszek, from Germany
Messier 91
Messier 91 (M91) happens to look a lot like a TIE fighter, the prominent spacecraft from Star Wars, due to its central bar structure. M91, along with our own Milky Way Galaxy, is classified as a barred spiral galaxy. The bar structure in the center of these galaxies is found in about half of all the spiral galaxies in our universe!
Quick Facts and Observing Tips:
- Distance from Earth: 63 million light years
- Constellation: Coma Berencies
- Search for “M91” in the Explore tab of the Unistellar app.
- Depending on the sky quality at your location, you may want to leave the Enhanced Vision mode on for at least 5 minutes
- Recommended Bortle Class is 5 or lower.
eVscope image captured by Unistellar Citizen Astronomers Nicole Ruel and Jacques Bérard, from Québec
Messier 109
Along with Messier 91, Messier 109 (M109) also has striking similarity to a TIE fighter since it is a barred spiral galaxy. Home to 1 trillion stars, M109 is the most distant deep sky object in the Messier Catalog, followed by M91.
Quick Facts and Observing Tips:
- Distance from Earth: 84 million light years
- Constellation: Ursa Major
- Search for “M109” in the Explore tab of the Unistellar app.
- Depending on the sky quality at your location, you may want to leave the Enhanced Vision mode on for at least 5 minutes
- Recommended Bortle Class is 5 or lower.
eVscope image captured by Dan Peluso, Unistellar Education Associate with the SETI Institute and astrophysics PhD student at USQ
“That’s no moon… it’s a space station.”
This is a picture of the International Space Station (ISS) passing in front of the moon! It was taken with an eVscope by Dan Peluso, Unistellar Education Associate with the SETI Institute and astrophysics PhD student at USQ! Dan explains how to find the ISS and how he observed it moving in front of the Moon. The ISS is the third brightest object in our night sky and is even visible to the naked eye around the world!
Double Sunset on Tatooine. Credit: Lucasfilm / 20th Century Fox / The Kobal Collection
Did you know that planets like Tatooine with double sunsets and icy worlds like Hoth really exist?
There are almost infinite possibilities with exoplanets, planets that lie beyond our solar system. Kepler-16b, an exoplanet found within our Milky Way Galaxy, has two suns! A frozen world known as OGLE 2005-BLG-390L similar in size to Earth was actually nicknamed Hoth! If you want to aid in the search and discovery of exoplanets, check out our exoplanet citizen science portal to get started!
We encourage you to share your observations and join the conversation through our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages using the hashtag #UnistellarChallenge!
If you’d like to send us your observations by email, send them to community@unistellaroptics.com.
Clear skies! 🔭
