I stayed over the night on the Hirschberg near Bad Hindelang, Bavaria, Germany. At midnight when I arrived but the sky was full of clouds. However, at the moment I woke up (at 3 a.m.) it was completely clear. It was cold so I couldn't sleep. Finally it was absolutely worth it to stay there :) I want to dedicate this to my friend Melli :) I hope you like it!

Canon EOS 550D, Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX AF 11-16mm f/2.8.

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/

Taken in Hinterstein, Bavaria, Germany in a very clear night some time before the Moon got visible. I hope you like it!

Canon EOS 550D, Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX.

Shot from the mountain "Imberger Horn" above Bad Hindelang in Bavaria, Germany.

After hiking up in the dark for about two hours I got the gift of this perfect view.

Also check out the panorama I took an hour before this shot.

I hope you like it! :)

Canon EOS Rebel T2i, Tokina AT-X Pro 11-16mm f/2.8 DX.

Photo Settings: 11mm, f/5, ISO 400.

Taken near Hinterstein, Bavaria, Germany on a wonderful evening with a great sunset in Winter. I combined these 2 pictures because I think it looks pretty nice. I hope you like it!

Canon EOS 550D, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II.

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)

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

This composite image combines a near-infrared view from the Hubble Space Telescope, an infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and an X-ray view from the Chandra X-ray Observatory into one multi-wavelength picture.

It features the spectacle of stellar evolution: from vibrant regions of star birth, to young hot stars, to old cool stars, to seething remnants of stellar death called black holes. This activity occurs against a fiery backdrop in the crowded, hostile environment of the galaxy's core, the center of which is dominated by a supermassive black hole nearly four million times more massive than our Sun. Permeating the region is a diffuse blue haze of X-ray light from gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by outflows from the supermassive black hole as well as by winds from massive stars and by stellar explosions. Infrared light reveals more than a hundred thousand stars along with glowing dust clouds that create complex structures including compact globules, long filaments, and finger-like "pillars of creation," where newborn stars are just beginning to break out of their dark, dusty cocoons.

Credit: NASA, ESA, SSC, CXC, and STScI

Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team