NGC 246 - The Skull Nebula

This is a crop highlighting the Skull Nebula is located in the constellation Cetus. It is a planetary nebula discovered by William Herschel in 1785. From our vantage point, it has an angular resolution of 3.7 arcmin. The estimated diameter is about 2.3 light years, and is at a distance of 1,600 light years from our planet. The listed magnitude of the nebula is around 11th magnitude, so is has a fairly low surface brightness. Quite often, visual observers can find the foreground stars overpowering. The central star is fairly bright at 11.8 magnitude. The eastern limb of the nebula is brighter suggesting that it is interacting with the interstellar medium. I love how some objects in the cosmos have bow waves reflecting the dynamics of the interstellar medium.

 

I tried to capture the translucent shell of this planetary nebula. It reminds me of a crystal sphere containing something wonderful at its centre. The teal and red colours within add a nice depth to the image. The galaxy in the top left is NGC 255, a barred spiral galaxy, a distance of 59.16 million light years away, give or take 5 million for an estimate.

 

The image was captured between Sept-November 2017. I used 6 filters to create the image. Red, Green, Blue, Luminance, Ha, and OIII.

 

Object Co-ordinates:

Image centre: RA: 00 47 00.659 Dec: -11 50 16.19

Field of view: 53' 40.0" x 35' 46.7"

Resolution: 0.803 arcsec/px

 

Instruments:

10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1

Astro Physics AP-900 Mount

SBIG STL 11000m

FLI Filter Wheel

Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters

Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter

Baader Planetarium O-III 8.5 Narrowband-Filter

 

Exposure Details:

62 X 900 Bin 1X1 Lum

25 X 450 Bin 2X2 Red

22 X 450 Bin 2X2 Green

20 X 450 Bin 2X2 Blue

5 X 900 Bin 1X1 Ha

10 X 900 Bin 1x1 OIII

 

Location

Australia, Central Victoria

Imaged from Aug-Oct 201

 

Full Field View: www.flickr.com/photos/97807083@N00/26521553869/in/photost...

 

Done