Hoag's Object in Serpens is one of the sky's most enigmatic galaxies. This 16th magnitude rare type of galaxy is 600 million light years away and it seems there is still much debate on exactly how it formed. The outer ring is about 120,000 light years in diameter and is composed of hot blue stars while the nucleus is composed of older yellow stars. It was discovered in 1950 and targeted by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2001. You can read more on this galaxy here.
Galaxy cluster Abell 2218. 17" Planewave CDK. FLI-PL6303E camera. L:30mins. RGB:5mins. February 2013.
The remote galaxy cluster Abell 2218 in the constellation Draco is one of the sky's richest and largest galaxy clusters. Its immense distance from us however (2 billion light years) means that sadly it is very faint and visible only in large telescopes. The above images reveal a plethora of galaxies down to around 21st magnitude. Note the bright foreground spiral galaxy which is not part of the cluster. The massive gravity of the cluster causes gravitational lensing hints of which can be seen in the images.
Messier 42. 10" Takahashi Epsilon Astrograph. STL-11000 CCD camera. November 2012.
This bright diffuse Nebula located in the constellation of Orion is among the sky's most photographed and observed objects. It lays at a distance of around 1300 light years from Earth and spans about 24 light years in diameter. It is the nearest star forming region to Earth and contains many small proto planetary disks - the beginnings of new solar systems. At its centre is the famous trapezium star cluster - four close stars arranged in a trapeziod shape. These young stars are responsible for much of the illumination of the nebula itself.