Astrophotographer Ronald Brecher captured a haunting vista in July earlier this year, in which several deep-sky objects take on the collective appearance of a colossal cosmic shark hunting in the depths of space.
The body of 's shark is comprised of a vast interstellar cloud of dust and gas that stretches for from snout to tail in the constellation Cepheus, some 650 from . The radiation of energetic has sculpted the cloud into the form of a gaping maw, while the suggestions of dorsal and pectoral fins are visible as your eyes sweep right across the "shark's" nebulous body.
is icing on the shark. Er, cake.
The single great "eye" of the shark is formed from the 6 star HD 211300, while the barred PGC 67671 is visible as a smudge of light slightly behind the shark's dorsal fin. The patches of blue seen towards the top and bottom of the cosmic predator are formed by — huge clouds of dust and gas made from particles that efficiently scatter the blue wavelengths of light from nearby stellar bodies.
Brecher captured his deep space vista under the light of a first quarter moon over several nights between July 23-30 earlier this year from his home in Guelph, Canada, using a Sky-Watcher Esprit 70 EDX refractor fitted with a QHY367C Pro astronomy camera. The data was then postprocessed using PixInsight software.