January 2011 photo of the month is the Horse Head and Flame Nebula in the constellation Orion. Photo taken by Mike Brady.
The February 2011 photo of the month is the Flame Nebula in Orion's belt. The photo was taken by Mike Brady.
The March 2011 photo of the month is the Pleiades (Seven Sisters). It is an open cluster of blue luminous stars about 440 light years away. Photo taken by Mike Brady.
The April 2011 photo of the month is M22 a globular cluster of stars. M22 is one of the nearer globular clusters to Earth at a distance of about 10,600 light-years away. Photo by Mike Brady.
The May 2011 photo of the month is M51 the Whirlpool galaxy. The Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting spiral galaxy located at a distance of 31 to 35 million light years.
The June 2011 photo of the month is the sun with active sunspots. The next two years with be very active years for sunspots and flares. Photo by Mike Brady.
The July 2011 photo of the month is the swan or omega nebula. It is 5,000 to 6,000 light years and 15 light years in diameter. Photo taken by Mike Brady.
The August 2011 photo of the month is a close up view of the North American nebula. The North America Nebula covers an area four times the size of the full moon. Photo by Mike Brady.
The September 2011 photo of the month is part of the veil nebula. It is NGC 6992 and is the remnants of a super nova that exploded about 10,000 years ago.
The October 2011 photo of the month is the other part of the veil nebula. This is NGC 6960 and the veil nebula is about 1,400 light years away.
The November 2011 photo of the month is the Helix Nebula (The eye of God) NGC 7293. It is a large planetary nebula only 700 light years away. Photo by Mike Brady.
The December 2011 photo of the month is a close-up view of the California Nebula. It is 1,000 light years away. Photo by Mike Brady.