Kentucky-based astrophotographer David Joyce has shared a glorious deep space vista revealing the fossil light of a vast supernova remnant created in the death throes of an enormous star some 10,000 years ago.
Joyce’s nebula scene captures the expanding shell of the supernova remnant CTB 1, also known as both the Garlic Nebula and the Medulla Nebula for its resemblance to both the bulbous plant and the human brain.
The cataclysmic explosion that spawned the supernova remnant simultaneously gave rise to a superdense pulsar, which was discovered in 2009 by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope travelling at 2.5 million miles per hour (4 million km/h) away from the site of its birth.
“This was relatively difficult to capture from my light polluted suburban backyard under Bortle 7 skies,” Joyce told Space.com in an email. “The Garlic Nebula is rather faint which is why I dedicated over 50 hours of exposure time to try to bring out more detail.”
Joyce captured the ancient light from the Medulla Nebula using an 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope fitted with a ZWO astronomy camera augmented with a host of peripherals and filters from his home in Lexington, Kentucky over the course of seven clear nights in September earlier this year. The light data was then post-processed using astronomy software to create a spectacular nebula spacescape.
“I have wanted to image this supernova remnant since I started with astrophotography in 2020 but was never able to get it framed up just right with the equipment I had as it is so large in apparent size (almost exactly the size of a full moon) in the sky,” continued Joyce. “After purchasing a new camera a couple of years ago with a larger sensor, I was finally able to get this object framed up as I had envisioned with my 8″ telescope for a close up view. I just had to wait for the right time of year and conditions which all fell into place last month.”
Interested in trying your hand at imaging the night sky? Then be sure to read our roundups of the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography. Stargazers may also want to check out our guides to the top telescope and binocular deals available in 2025.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your deep space astrophotography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), along with your name and the location of your shoot to [email protected].
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