Astrophotography from UAE deserts: Reader shares photos taken from Al Qudra and Al Quaa

Love stargazing? So does Gulf News reader Shashank Pincha, who shared some spectacular astrophotography from two UAE deserts. He said: “I had the pleasure of capturing some stunning deep space objects from the deserts of UAE. This Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, located south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the most photographed objects in the night sky and is among the most intensely studied celestial features as it is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. It is approximately 1,344 light-years away, is estimated to be 24 light-years across and has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun.”Image Credit: Shashank Pincha/Gulf News reader

The amateur astrophotographer has been practising this hobby for over a year. Pincha said: “The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth. The brightest stars in the formation glow a hot blue and formed within the last 100 million years, they are easily identifiable and the most obvious cluster to the naked eye in the night sky.”

The Indian expatriate, who has been living in Dubai for last 16 years, said that he felt lucky as living in the UAE gives him access to deserts like Al Qudra in Dubai, where one can observe thousands of constellations and meteor showers. He added: “This is the Eagle Nebula also known as the Star Queen Nebula, a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens. Both the ‘Eagle’ and the ‘Star Queen’ refer to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the centre of the nebula, an area made famous as the ‘Pillars of Creation’ imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the aforementioned Pillars of Creation. The Eagle Nebula lies in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way.”

Explaining this photograph, he said: “The Rosette Nebula is an Hydrogen-II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The nearby open cluster is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula’s matter. The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of 5,000 light-years from Earth and measure roughly 130 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see.”

Pincha also captured these spectacular galaxy in Al Quaa in Abu Dhabi, where one can even view the International Space Station and the Milky Way galaxy with their naked eyes in the right viewing conditions. The Heart Nebula is some 7,500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula’s intense red output and its morphology are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula’s centre. The shape of the nebula is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula also spans almost two degrees in the sky, covering an area four times that of the diameter of the full moon.”

Pincha captured this Cygnus Wall, a portion of an emission nebula named the North American Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. He said: “The nebula is approximately 1,500 light years from Earth, and the Cygnus Wall spans about 20 light years. The Wall exhibits the most concentrated star formations in the nebula.”

Pincha added: “The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy’s name stems from the area of Earth’s sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide in around 4-5 billion years, merging to form a giant elliptical galaxy. With an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is visible to the naked eye from Earth on moonless nights, even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution.”

Finally, Pincha shared this picture of The Triangulum Galaxy, which is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. He said: “The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.” Pincha captured all these finest Deep Space Objects (DSOs) invisible to the naked eye. Now it’s your turn to visit Al Qudra or Al Quaa and try to capture these spectacular stars or just simply stargazing.