Space travels: Stargazing in Provence

Eagle Nebula in the constellation of Serpens - a starbirth region Photograph: Tom O'Donoghue/Ed Ewing

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae in Orion Photograph: Chantal Chevailler and Olly Penrice/Ed Ewing

The ‘Leo Triplet’ of three galaxies, at a distance of about 35 million light years. This view can be duplicated at the eyepiece of a large, 20-inch aperture reflecting telescope Photograph: Olly Penrice/Olly Penrice

Death of a sun-like star. The planetry nebula Messier 27 drifts out into space Photograph: Ton Couperus/Ed Ewing

This prize-winning image by Dutch astrophotographer Frans Kroon depicts the famous M42, or Great Nebula in Orion. Less dense than a terrestrial laboratory vacuum, it is the birthplace of many massive, hot young stars Photograph: Frans Koon (www.franskroon.nl)

Waiting for nightfall. This scanned slide traces the apparent movement of the sky over 45 minutes. The ghostly red trails are created by the head torches of guest astronomers as they prepare for a night’s astrophotography Photograph: Maurice Toet /Maurice Toet

A closer look at the Andromeda galaxy and its much smaller satellite galaxies, M32 and M110. Studies of a variable star within this ‘nebula’ enabled Edwin Hubble to demonstrate, in the 1920s, that it lay far beyond the Milky Way Photograph: Maurice Toet/Maurice Toet

Olly Penrice and his half-metre telescope Photograph: Ed Ewing/Ed Ewing

The constellation of Andromeda is home to M31, the only galaxy beyond our own that most naked-eye observers can detect. At a little over 2 million light years, it shows here as a tiny, faintly elongated streak. In reality is a little more massive than our own Milky Way Photograph: Phil Moore/Phil Moore

Saturn, February 2007. An inexpensive webcam in Olly Penrice's 10-inch telescope was used to capture the ringed planet Photograph: Olly Penrice

Sunset at Les Granges. The ‘limb darkening effect’ seen here arises because the outer layers of the Sun are cooler, and so a deeper colour, than the underlying layers. Don’t harm your eyes by trying to detect this directly. Taken with a compact digital camera and filtered telescope Photograph: Olly Penrice/Olly Penrice