These are some images my friend John Pillion and I took from my backyard in October 2003. These were our first (and as yet last) astronomical images. John and I both like looking at nebulas, or nebulae if you prefer, which are clouds of gas and dust typically illuminated by star light. They are just amazing sites through a good telescope but the human eye (thankfully) does not aggregate light which means a lot of detail cannot be seen naked-eye. CCD Cameras, on the other hand, are perfect for this. Our goal in taking these images was to capture as much cloud-like wispy detail as we could so we could admire the intricacies. I never get tired of going back and looking at images like these as they show the amazing diversity and beauty of God's creation. You can find better quality astro images here (produced at 'astronomical' costs), but like any craft, we enjoyed the work required to produce these images.