The autumn sky offers an intermediate view of Deep Sky Objects between the summer and winter Milky Way skies. Part of the plane of the Milky way is still in view, and some of the DSOs that were in the southern sky in the summer months are now in the western sky. DSOs in the celestial polar region are also good for viewing.

Looking south during the autumn shows only a small section of the Milky Way. Looking to the north at this time of year yields more good DSOs to see and photograph.

The Veil Nebula is a large supernova remnant located about 2,400 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun that exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, and would have been so bright that it was visible in the daytime. The remnants have since expanded to a size about 6 times the diameter of the full Moon. This nebula has three major components: the Western Veil, Pickering s Triangle, and the Eastern Veil.

The view to the north also shows the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, and DSOs near the celestial pole (Polaris) come into view. At my latitude for astrophotography, Polaris is located 38 degrees above the horizon. All of the DSOs within a circle of 38 degrees from Polaris will be visible all year long, but many of them will be too close to the horizon to be easily seen through the dense atmosphere.

The North American Nebula (NGC 7000), named for its shape, is the focal pont of this region. The Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) is nearby, and the extensive Gamma Cygni Nebula (IC 1318) and the Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC 1396) combine with the North American Nebula to form a dramatic view of this portion of the Milky Way. To the east, you can see the Heart and Soul Nebulae (IC 1805 and IC 1848), with the nearby double open star cluster h & chi Persei (NGC 869 & NGC 884). The h & chi Persei double cluster was the subject of my first ever astrophoto (1968).

The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) is located in the Cygnus star cluster and nearby is Cygnus X-1; a binary star system that is a strong source of X-rays and the first cosmic object ever identified as containing a black hole.. Annotations show the locations of my astrophotos.

The region around Polaris is rich with galaxies. Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and its companion galaxies M32 and M110, are in good position for viewing and photography. Andromeda, located about 2.5 million light-years away, is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies are gravitationally connected, and are being drawn towards each other. The two galaxies will collide in about 3.875 billion years, but because stars are so far apart, the likelihood of any two stars colliding is almost zero, although there may be perturbations of stellar orbits and interstellar gaseous interactions.

Supernovae are powerful explosions of stars when their internal nuclear fuel supplies burn out and the stars quickly collapse, resulting in massive shock waves causing stars to explode.

Supernova 2023ixf was first observed on 19 May 2023 in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), and by 22 May 2023, SN 2023ixf had brightened to about magnitude 11.The supernova started to fade around 10 June 2023. SN 2023ixf is not visible in the 6 April 2024 image.