The Witch Head Nebula. Click for larger. Image Credit and copyright: APOD and Star Shadows Remote Observatory (Steve Mazlin, Jack Harvey, Rick Gilbert, Teri Smoot, Daniel Verschatse).

This is an Astronomy Picture of the Day selection from last year featuring the Witch Head Nebula.

The Witch Head Nebula is about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation of Orion.  The nebula is known as a reflection nebula because it is illuminated by a nearby star or group of stars, in this case the star is the blue supergiant Rigel.

I was going to use a different version of this nebula for today, but this one is just too good not to use, the bright star Rigel just makes the image all the better.

You can see this image in it’s original context AND links to other scary sights (be very sure to look at the link for the veiled spectre) at APOD.

The original image: A “Witch by Starlight”  Credit & Copyright: Star Shadows Remote Observatory (Steve Mazlin, Jack Harvey, Rick Gilbert, Teri Smoot, Daniel Verschatse).  I tried to image the Witch Head a couple years ago and had very little success so in my book this image isn’t just good, it’s extraordinary.

If you are out and about tonight HAVE FUN AND BE SAFE!

Oh and when you go to the APOD site you can get a larger version so you can put it on your desktop.