NGC 7635

NGC 7635 The Bubble Nebula.

 

The open star cluster to the upper left is M52 the Salt & Pepper cluster.

 

Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, the Bubble Nebula lies within the boundaries of the constellation of Cassiopeia at a distance of 7,100 light years away. The bubble itself spans some 7 light years across. For perspective the nearest star to our Sun is only 4 light years.

The bubble is expanding at a phenomenal rate. There is a super massive star that is creating the 'stellar winds' causing the bubble to expand. It can be seen in the image to the upper centre within the bubble. These 'stellar winds' are moving at upwards of 4 million miles per hour!

The star is estimated at 4 million years old, so it's just a baby really. Though because it's so massive, it will burn through it's fuel much more quickly. NASA estimate just 10 - 20 million years before it goes BANG as a supernova.

 

The open star cluster M52, contains over 100 stars and is a little closer to us than the Bubble Nebula. Discovered by Charles Messier in 1774 it's distance is estimated to be somewhere around 4000-5000 light years away.

Image captured on Saturday 24th of September 2022 at The Astronomy Centre, Todmorden, UK.

 

Boring techie bit.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

35 light frames 5 minutes each at ISO 800

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats & bias in DeepSkyStacker.

All processing done with StarTools.

Done