Halloween special, Aurora, galaxies, a snoot on comet C/2023 A3, and Saturn's moons
31st October - Halloween Special All Hallows eve, the night when all the saintly souls go to bed early prior to their annual piss up, and ghosts, demons and lost souls take the opportunity to do what ghosts, demons and lost souls actually do. Let's see what's out there: THE GHOST OF CASSIOPEIA Ooooooh, what's this.... Could it be the spirit of a young girl taken too early from her earthly life, and now running towards you with arms outstretched? Could it be a bloke with a sheet over his head? Or could it be an HII region in Cassiopeia a mere 550 light years distant? Here it is in a wider field of view. (Click/tap to big). The bright start is Gamma Cassiopeiae (the middle star of the familiar W shape of the constellation), magnitude 2.1. It is the light from this star being reflected from the nebula that makes it easily visible in the image from my non-astro camera. In the image you can...