2025 Saturn Rings on Edge

 2025 is an interesting year for Saturn, its rings were edge on mid summer, and now the planet is starting to tilt, so the rings are visible again.  It's a rare time when Saturn's moons transits can be photographed.  Here is an image form August 31, 2025, with Saturn's moon Rhea seen transiting at 3 o'clock, its shadow visible on the planet's disk, and its glow just at the edge

2025 New Images of Deep Space

Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274)

I have collected this narrowband data in Dec 2021 - Mar 2023 in the field (MD/VA).  

The Medusa Nebula is a large planetary nebula about a third of the full moon diameter. The visual brightness is 10.3 and the surface brightness is 15.3 mag.  Like other planetary nebulae, the Medusa was formed by an intermediate to low-mass red giant star that shed its outer layers in the late stage of its evolutionary cycle. The remnant stellar core is causing the expanding shell of ionized gas to brightly fluoresce.

The Space Propeller

Not much is known about the Propeller Nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.   The nebula’s defining visual feature is its unique trident- or propeller-like structure, consisting of long, narrow filaments of glowing gas that fan out from a central region. These filaments glow primarily in the H-alpha emission line, a characteristic of hydrogen-rich interstellar clouds that are energized by nearby stars.  

Full size image at astrobin