I used a public domain NASA image of the Horsehead nebula, removed the noise and errors and optimized the color range and saturation.

You can find the unedited original here: http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0661.html

Minimum credit line: T.A.Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF) and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)

I used a public domain NASA image of the Orion nebula, removed the noise and optimized the color range and saturation.

You can find the unedited original here:
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0349.html

Minimum credit line: T.A.Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF) and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)

Public domain image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Original unedited version may be found at: nasaimages.org
(NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org)

Special thanks to chriscologne for the idea of retouching astronomy photos. I used Photoshop CS3 and plugins to retouch the image.

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA.
Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

This wide-field view of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), lying about 1350 light-years from Earth, was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. The new telescope's huge field of view allows the whole nebula and its surroundings to be imaged in a single picture and its infrared vision also means that it can peer deep into the normally hidden dusty regions and reveal the curious antics of the very active young stars buried there. This image was created from images taken through Z, J and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. The exposure times were ten minutes per filter. The image covers a region of sky about one degree by 1.5 degrees.

Full press release: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1006/

Original image: http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1006a/

ESO's VLT reveals the Carina Nebula's hidden secrets.

This broad panorama of the Carina Nebula, a region of massive star formation in the southern skies, was taken in infrared light using the HAWK-I camera on ESO's Very Large Telescope. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars, have emerged.

Credit: ESO/T. Preibisch

http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1208a/

I've been in love with the Orion Nebula by chriscologne for quite a while, so I made my own nebula, which I would have missed 'cause I'd be in cryosleep to, uhm, whereever I would be going. Or something... I don't know exactly.

Apophysis and loads of Adobe Photoshop CS4.

A nebula lost in the infinity.

Created in Adobe Photoshop.

The second of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project is a new and wonderful 340 megapixel vista of the central parts of our galactic home, a 34 by 20-degree wide image that provides us with a view as experienced by amateur astronomers around the world. Taken by Stephane Guisard, an ESO engineer and world-renowned astrophotographer, from Cerro Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, this image directly benefits from the quality of Paranal's sky, one of the best on the planet. The image shows the region spanning the sky from the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer) to Scorpius (the Scorpion). The very colourful Rho Ophiuchi and Antares region features prominently to the right, as well as much darker areas, such as the Pipe and Snake Nebulae. The dusty lane of our Milky Way runs obliquely through the image, dotted with remarkable bright, reddish nebulae, such as the Lagoon and the Trifid Nebulae, as well as NGC 6357 and NGC 6334. This dark lane also hosts the very centre of our Galaxy, where a supermassive black hole is lurking.

The image was obtained by observing with a 10-cm Takahashi FSQ106Ed f/3.6 telescope and a SBIG STL CCD camera, using a NJP160 mount. Images were collected through three different filters (B, V and R) and then stitched together. This mosaic was assembled from 52 different sky fields made from about 1200 individual images totaling 200 hours exposure time, with the final image having a size of 24,403 x 13,973 pixels. Note that the final, full resolution image is only available through Stephane Guisard.

Credit: ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard)

This digital painting took what can only be described as a ridiculously long time to do. I hope you all like it. No stock or references of any kind were used.

Adobe Photoshop.

A 3-light-year-long pillar, bathed in the glow of light from hot, massive stars to the top of the image. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from these stars are sculpting the pillar and causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of gas and dust can be seen flowing off the top of the structure.

Nestled inside this dense structure are fledgling stars. They cannot be seen in this image because they are hidden by a wall of gas and dust. Although the stars themselves are invisible, one of them is providing evidence of its existence. Thin puffs of material can be seen traveling to the left and to the right of a dark notch in the center of the pillar. The matter is part of a jet produced by a young star. Farther away, on the left, the jet is visible as a grouping of small, wispy clouds. A few small clouds are visible at a similar distance on the right side of the jet. Astronomers estimate that the jet is moving at speeds of up to 850,000 miles an hour. The jet's total length is about 10 light-years.

Composed of gas and dust, the pillar resides in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team