NGC 6302 - The Butterfly Neb

NGC 6302 is a bipolar planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpius. It is also known the Bug Nebula, Butterfly Nebula, or Caldwell 69.

 

NGC 6302 resembles a butterfly with its wings outstretched. It is perhaps one of the most complex ever observed planetary nebulae. It has many dramatic areas, some containing roiling cauldrons of superheated gas along the areas resembling wings too thick dust concealing its heart. Superheated gas is moving through space at more than 950 000 kilometres per hour. At that speed, you could travel from the Earth to the Moon in around 24 minutes! Incredible.

 

The central star is one of the hottest stars known, with a surface temperature in excess of 250,000 degrees Celsius. This suggests that the star must have been enormous.

 

These cosmic trainwrecks always seem to leave the most beautiful structures in their wake. I created this image using cooled CCD monochromatic astronomical cameras with seven filters. A luminance filter captured most of the detail, followed by red, green, and blue filters to fill cre ate a traditional colour image. I then used SII, Ha, and OIII narrowband for a bit of extra structure and additional hues to balance the shot while trying to retain a traditional RGB colour image.

 

Instruments:

Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS

Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono

Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900

Focal Length: 2310.00 mm

Pixel size: 9.00 um

Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix

 

Exposure Details:

Red 18X600

Green 12X600

Blue 19X600

Lum 59X600

Ha 29X1200

SII 15X1200

OIII 28X1200

 

Total Exposure: 42 Hours

 

Thanks for looking

 

 

 

 

 

Done