View allAll Photos Tagged PlanetaryNebula
One of the more popular targets for astrophotography during the summer months the Dumbbell Nebula was created when a single star ejected large quantities of material to form a complex, expanding shell of glowing gas and dust surrounding that same parent star. Located in the constellation Vulpecula, this so-called planetary nebula passes high overhead in the late summer for observers in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere.
Photographed around midnight on July 8/9, 2016 from my light-polluted driveway using a 5” aperture refractor telescope and a QHY5III-178C camera (229 sub-exposures of 30 seconds each, giving a total integrated exposure time of 114.5 minutes).
Image capture was performed using Sequence Generator Pro with post processing done in PixInsight (image registration, integration, and initial adjustments) and Photoshop CC2015.
This photo is best seen in the Flickr light box or at full size (1920 x 1220 pixels).
All rights reserved.
The Dumbbell Nebula, M27, is a planetary nebula that lies some 1400 light years away in the constellation Vulpecula. It was the first planetary nebula discovered. Planetary nebulae consist of expanding ionized gas ejected from red giant stars. What's left is a very hot star, a white dwarf, and the UV radiation from the star ionizes the gas, providing the light we see.
Details:
Scope: TMB130SS
Camera: QSI690-wsg8
Guide Camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Mount: Mach1 GTO
L: 24x5min
RGB: 16x5min each
Software: SGP, PHD2, APCC, Pixinsight
6 hrs total exposure
Astrobin Top Pick
British Astronomical Association Picture of the Week November 4 2018
Published in Astronomy Now Magazine December 2018 and September 2020
Winner, Stargazers Lounge Imaging Challenge November 2018
Commended in the British Astronomical Association Journal August 2019
An extremely faint planetary nebula in Pegasus discovered by Rebecca Jones of Harvard University in 1941. It is magnitude 15.1 and at a distance of 2,300 light years from earth.
HaOIIIRGB some 14 hours total integration.
R,G,B 12x300s each bin 1x1
OIII 18x1800s bin 2x2
Ha 4x1800s bin 2x2
Image captured remotely at Alcalali, Spain
APM TMB 152 F8 LZOS, 10 Micron GM2000HPS, QSI6120ws8
Taken on the night of 2023-10-30 under Bortle 9 skies from the observatory at Cerritos College
10 60 s L frames
5 300 s Hα frames
4 300 s [O III] frames
Celestron C14
SBIG STXL-6303
Antlia L, Hα, and [O III] filters -- narrowband filters have a 4.5 nm bandpass
Image acquisition with Maxim DL
Preprocessing in Nebulosity
Image registration, stacking, channel combination, and processing in PixInsight
Final touches in GIMP
Hoag's Object is a non-typical galaxy of the type known as a ring galaxy. The galaxy is named after Arthur Hoag who discovered it in 1950 and identified it as either a planetary nebula or a peculiar galaxy with eight billion stars, spanning roughly 100,000 light years.
Took in Space Engine : )
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed details of the Southern Ring planetary nebula that were previously hidden from astronomers. Planetary nebulae are the shells of gas and dust ejected from dying stars. Webb’s powerful infrared view brings this nebula’s second star into full view, along with exceptional structures created as the stars shape the gas and dust around them. New details like these, from the late stages of a star’s life, will help us better understand how stars evolve and transform their environments.
These images also reveal a cache of distant galaxies in the background. Most of the multi-colored points of light seen here are galaxies – not stars.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
#NASAMarshall #msfc #gsfc #jwst #space #telescope #jameswebspacetelescope #planetarynebula #nebula #galaxy
M57 (NGC 6720) is probably one of the most recognizable Messier objects. It is a planetary nebula found in the constellation Lyra, referred to as the Ring Nebula, and lies about 2,300 light-years from Earth.
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, Antares Focal Reducer, 108 x 60 second at -10C, 30 darks and 30 flats, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using Sequence Generator Pro and processed using PixInsight. Image date: March 19, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Sh2-68 is an ancient planetary nebula, visible in the constellation Serpens. Its age is estimated at 45,000 years old.
Located in the northern part of the constellation, about 4° north-northeast of the star η Serpentis, it extends over 8 arcminutes. The nebula has a very irregular shape. The interaction with the surrounding interstellar medium has actually determined a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, hence its shape. Its progenitor star is a white dwarf located in a position offset from the center of the nebula. Its distance is estimated between 120 and 270 parsecs from the solar system, against the 200–500 parsecs estimated for the nebula. This makes this nebula, along with Sh2-174, an excellent subject for testing theories about the interaction between planetary nebulae and the surrounding interstellar medium.
Narrowband (HOO) version: H-Alpha mapped to red, OIII mapped to blue and OIII+Ha mapped to the green channel. While the colors in this image are not the true colors, the narrowband filters were used to create the nebula color. Then I added the natural star colors using RGB filters and Starnet process.
RA 18h 25m 08.3s
DEC +00° 51' 16.6"
ORIENTATION Up is 240.8degrees E of N
CONSTELLATION Serpens
DISTANCE 1,630 ly
Captured August 2022
Field Of view: 26.4 x 36.9 arcmin
Total integration time of 51.5 hours.
Technical Details
Data acquisition: Martin PUGH
Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND
El Sauce Observatory, Rio Hurtado, Chile
L 15 x 1200 sec
Ha 50 x 1800 sec
OIII 23 x 1800 sec
R 14 x 900 sec
G 12 x 900 sec
B 14 x 900 sec
Optics: Planewave 17“ CDK @ F6.8
Mount: Paramount ME
CCD: SBIG STXL-11002 (AOX)
Here is a combined 4-minute exposure of the double-shell planetary nebula called The Eskimo Nebula or NGC 2392. It is located in the constellation Gemini and is about 2,900 light-years away at a magnitude of 10.1. Radial velocity measurements reveal that this diameter of the cloud is growing at a rate of 68 miles per second (Burnham, 1978).
Tech Specs: Meade 12" LX90, Canon 6D, 4-minutes total using many short 1 to 3 second images at f/10 (includes darks, bias and flats), guided, processed with DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: March 4, 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
This 2005 composite X-ray (blue)/optical (red) image of the object NGC 40 shows hot gas around a dying, Sun-like star. NGC 40 is one of a class of objects called planetary nebulas, so-called because they look like the disk of a planet when viewed with a small telescope.
Planetary nebulas provide a preview of how our Sun may look about five billion years from now when most of its nuclear fusion energy sources will have been used up. The star has puffed off its outer layer to leave behind a smaller, hot star with a surface temperature of about 50,000 degrees Celsius.
Radiation from the hot star heats the ejected matter to about 10,000 degrees to produce the complex and graceful nebula (red) about a light year across. The X-rays in the composite image reveal a shell of multimillion degree gas (blue) that has been compressed and heated by a 2-million-miles-per-hour stellar wind from the dying star.
The discovery of hot X-ray emitting clouds of gas within planetary nebulas such as NGC 40 enables astronomers to study the violent demise of Sun-like stars. By observing many planetary nebulas, astronomers hope to be able to determine whether X-ray-emitting clouds represent a short-lived phase of most dying stars or unusually violent conditions within specific planetary nebulas.
In another 30,000 years or so, NGC 40 will fade away, leaving behind a compact, ultradense white dwarf star about the size of Earth. It is estimated that about one planetary nebula is formed in the Galaxy every year, and that they recycle about one solar mass of helium-enriched material back into the Galaxy per year.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIT/J.Kastner & R.Montez.; Optical: NSF/AURA/NOAO/WIYN
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #ChandraXrayObservatory #cxo #nebula #planetarynebula
From Wikipedia: NGC 40 (also known as the Bow-Tie Nebula and Caldwell 2) is a planetary nebula discovered by William Herschel on November 25, 1788, and is composed of hot gas around a dying star. The star has ejected its outer layer which has left behind a smaller, hot star with a temperature on the surface of about 50,000 degrees Celsius. Radiation from the star causes the shed outer layer to heat to about 10,000 degrees Celsius, and is about one light-year across. About 30,000 years from now, scientists theorize that NGC 40 will fade away, leaving only a white dwarf star approximately the size of Earth.
Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI290MC and ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF. 59 x 60 seconds at -10C plus darks and flats. Image Date: November 6, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Still finding some unprocessed images from earlier this year. Here is a different looking planetary nebula designated as NGC 2371 and 2372 found in the constellation Gemini. You can just start to make out the “wings” on either side of this nebula with a 30-minute exposure. Distance to this planetary nebula is listed at 4,400 light-years.
Tech Specs: This image is composed of 30 x 60 second images at ISO 3,200 with darks, bias and flat frames using a Meade LX90 12” telescope and Canon 6D camera mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Date: March 4, 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
M27 taken with SBIG ST-2000XCM and AO7 used for the first time with Meade F6.3 FR/FF. 65 frames at 2 min. 40 sec. each. Scope used is a Meade 8" LX200 classic.
I found this object to be interesting, although not very photogenic. The reddish-orange “star” in the central part of the image is called Campbell’s Hydrogen Star. Astronomer William Wallace Campbell spotted this unusual star-like object through a visual spectroscope at Lick Observatory in 1893. He could tell immediately from its spectrum that, despite its stellar appearance, he was not seeing an ordinary star at all. Instead, he had spotted an uncharted planetary nebula. With some extreme processing, I could make out the small reddish disk, but no central star.
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, Antares Focal Reducer, 48 x 60 second at 0C with darks and flats, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using ZWO AAP and processed using PixInsight. Image date: August 2, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Instead of looking like a spiral staircase, our perspective makes the Helix Nebula look more like a giant eye In the sky - earning additional names like "Eye of God" and "Eye of Sauron". Way back around 1824, Karl Ludwig Harding discovered the Helix Nebula and became the first person to discover a planetary nebula that contains something called "cometary knots". These knots of nebulosity appear in the Helix Nebula as little pillars of pink reaching from the outer ring into the blue center (barely visible in this image). It's estimated that the Helix Nebula has around 40,000 of these cometary knots.
Calibrated images were provided by iTelescope.net. In addition to providing access to their telescopes, iTelescope.net provides subscribing members with a combination of premium image sets (with the rights to use & post them) and webinars that show how to process them. Itelescope.net captured images from their Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales in Australia and I did the post-processing with Astro Pixel Processor, Photoshop and Topaz Denoise. Star spikes are natural.
Exposure Settings
• 24 images (6 luminance, 6 red, 6 green & 6 blue)
• Exposure Time: 5 minutes (each image)
• Total Exposure Time: 2 hours
Telescope Optics & Camera
• Optics: Planewave 17" CDK)
• Mount: Planewave Ascension 200HR
• Camera: FLI Proline 16803
NGC 6543, also known as the Cat's Eye Nebula, is a bright and compact planetary nebula in the northern sky, in the constellation Draco. Its high surface brightness and bright-green color that stems from an emission line of double-checked oxygen ions allow it to be observed even from light-polluted cities, although its small size requires a high magnification to see details.
The center of the nebula features an intricate pattern of interlocking bright shells, maybe the result of an unseen, close companion star? The small bright dot in the center is a white dwarf, the burnt-out and slowly cooling core of an once sun-like star. This is surrounded by a more diffuse glow, in which high-resolution images, e.g., from the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal several concentric shells from multiple phases of the dying star blowing off its outer shell. But beyond the easily-visible center, there is also a very faint but extended outer nebula, also shining mostly in greenish O-III light and some traces of deep red Hydrogen emission. The outer nebula has a very peculiar hexagonal shape with spokes pointing towards the center. These are probably the remnants of even earlier material ejections from the central star.
The combination of the bright central nebula and its faint outer component is notoriously challenging to display without losing detail, and required some rather extreme adjustments of the image's brightness curve. But somehow I managed without doing a HDR blend of different exposures.
The data for this image was acquired over 2h 15min during a Saturday evening barbecue at the Volkssternwarte München, using the 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at 2.5 m focal length, a dual-narrowband filter for O-III and H-alpha light and an ASI 294MC pro color camera.
Equipment:
Telescope: Meade LX200 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain
Reducer/Flattener: Starizona SCT Corrector IV 0.63x
Filter: IDAS NBZ-II dual narrowband filter
Camera: ASI 294MC Pro @-5°C / gain 120
Mount: MAM-50 (equatorial, unguided)
Acquisition:
Lights: 405 x 20s
Calibration: flatfield, dark
Software: SharpCap Pro 4.1
Processing:
Stacking and post-processing: SiRiL
Sharpening: fitswork (central nebula only)
Final adjustments: Luminar 2018
Revisiting this planetary nebula and adding another 60 min worth of data.
15 4 min exposures (guided) from the Santa Monica Mountains
9 2 min exposures (unguided) from near Alder Springs, CA
Celestron Edge HD 9.25"
f/2.3 with HyperStar
Atik 314L+ color CCD, cooled, no filters
Initial preprocessing in Nebulosity
Stacking and processing in PixInsight
Final touches in PS CS 5.1
Image center is at (J2000):
RA 22h 29m 38s
DEC -20° 50' 11"
Planetary Nebula in Scorpius
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Image exposure: 10.5 Minutes
Image Size: 14.2 x 9.47 arcmin
Image date: 2023-05-18
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The Medusa Nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation Gemini and lies some 1500 light years away, spanning 4 light years in diameter. The Medusa nebula was at first thought to be a supernova remnant, but with better estimates of expansion velocities and radio emission thermal characteristics, it was found to be a planetary nebula. This image shows the fainter outlying regions of the nebula with apparent ripples in the emission nebula.
Details:
Scope: TMB130SS @ f/5
Reducer: Stellarvue 0.72x reducer/flattener
Camera: QSI690-wsg8
Guide Camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Mount: AP1100 GTO
RGB: 17x5min total
Ha: 24x15min
OIII: 18x15min
Total exposure: 11.9 hours
Software: Voyager, PHD2, APCC, Pixinsight
Runner up, Stargazers Lounge Imaging Challenge November 2018
Published in Astronomy Now magazine February 2019
NGC 1514 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Taurus that was discovered by William Herschel on November 13, 1790, describing it "A most singular phaenomenon" and forcing him to rethink his ideas on the construction of the heavens. Up until this point Herschel was convinced that all nebulae consisted of masses of stars too remote to resolve, but now here was a single star "surrounded with a faintly luminous atmosphere." He went on to conclude "Our judgement I may venture to say, will be, that the nebulosity about the star is not of a starry nature".
It has since been conjectured that the nebula in fact envelops a tightly orbiting double star with a period of up to 10 days. Gas is presumably expanding away from the larger star of the pair.
15 hours 30 minutes total capture
R 20x300s
G 20x300s
B 20x300s
Ha 21x1800s
Image captured remotely at Alcalali, Spain
APM TMB 152 F8 LZOS, 10 Micron GM2000HPS, QSI6120ws8
“The Medusa Nebula is a large planetary nebula in the constellation of Gemini on the Canis Minor border. It also known as Abell 21 and Sharpless 2-274. It was originally discovered in 1955 by UCLA astronomer George O. Abell, who classified it as an old planetary nebula. The braided serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggests the serpent hair of Medusa found in ancient Greek mythology.” Wikipedia
It is at a distance of 1500 light years, and has size 4 ly. It is magnitude 16 overall, but the details are faint.
Bicolor HO image with RGB stars.
Imaged from Deep Sky West - Rowe New Mexico, using RCOS 14.5” Ritchey–Chrétien telescope f/9. 3340 mm focal length.
HO RGB 10,9.5, 2:2:2 hours
total exposure 26 hours
Transparency and Seeing good to excellent.
Oct 2017-January 2018
Processed in Pixinsight, Lightroom, Photoshop.
SBIG 16803 CCD,AO-X
astrophotography website: www.Eric-Ganz.net
Three thousand light years from Earth, the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is a sight that draws in the human eye. In this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, numerous bubbles are visible – shapes generated by the ejection of glowing gas as the star at its centre approaches the end of its life.
While large stars die in supernova explosions, average Sun-like stars form planetary nebulas as they exhaust their fuel supplies and slowly expire. The name ‘planetary nebula’ arose because the round shape, sculpted as layers of material are ejected, looked a little like a planet in small telescopes.
The Cat’s Eye Nebula was discovered by William Herschel in 1786, and remains an interesting target for ground-based astronomers. Amateurs can see the magnitude 8.1 blob in the sky well enough to resolve the Cat’s Eye shape, while large telescopes have identified a wider halo extending into space.
This image was published on the ESA Portal in 2004, but the Hubble Space Telescope first revealed the nebula’s intricate structure in 1994.
Observations of its intricate concentric gas shells and unusual shock-induced knots of gas suggest that the star ejected its mass in a series of pulses at 1500 year intervals. These convulsions created dust shells that each contain as much mass as all of the planets in our Solar System combined.
Credit: ESA, NASA, HEIC and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Here is a view of an ancient planetary nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia and known by several names including Sharpless 2-200 and HDW 2 (Hartl-Dengl-Weinberger 2). It was discovered in the early 1980’s by examining the 1960’s Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. You can read more about the discovery in an article titled “A newly discovered nearby planetary nebula of old age” by Authors: Weinberger, R., Dengel, J., Hartl, H., & Sabbadin, F.
Tech Specs: Sky Watcher Esprit 120ED, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro running at -20C, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro mount, Optolong L-eNhance filter (2”), 3 hours 55 minutes of 300 second exposures with dark/flat frames, guided using a ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope and ZWO 120 Mini, controlled with a ZWO ASIAir Pro running v1.5 Beta software. Image date: December 2020 and January 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle 4 Zone).
NGC 7293 - The Helix Nebula CDK24
Credits: Giuseppe Donatiello
J2000 RA 337.414° DEC -20.832°
The Helix Nebula, NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula (PN) located in Aquarius. This object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the planetary nebulae. The estimated distance is about 700 light-years. The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the "Eye of God".
Telescope Planewave CDK24 RGB-L + Ha-OIII data set
Processed with RegiStar, Corel PaintShop Pro X8
A planetary nebula in the constellation of Ursa Major.
Exceptionally faint and rarely imaged because it's so faint. Indeed the only previous image I could find was by Robert Pölzl.
A very obscure high excitation planetary nebula discovered in 1995 by James Liebert, Richard Tweedy, Ralf Napiwotzki and Michael Fulbright. At its heart is the eclipsing binary star system BE Ursae Majoris.
This is so faint that it's almost invisible on 1800s exposures, so I had to resort to capturing OIII data at bin 3x3, and lots!
There is a tiny amount of Ha, but even 1800s at bin 4x4 it was too faint to use.
26h40m total integration (40x1800s OIII at bin 3x3, LRGB all 20x300s at bin 1x1). Captured on my dual rig APM TMB 152 setup.
e-Eye, Spain 4/5-7/5/2019.
Many thanks to Sakib Rasool for suggesting this target to me.
Place: Lulin observatory, Taiwan
Time: 2017/08/13
Telescope: LOT
Diameter: 1000mm
Focal length: 8000mm
CCD: U42 2048*2048
L=60s*10
R=60s*10
V=60s*10
B=60s*10
Process: RBB as RGB(like ＨＯＯ)
Software: Maxim DL+Photoshop
LBN 534 is a molecular cloud stretching across more than 1.5 degrees of sky in the constellation Andromeda. It is about 1400 light years away and about 36 light years ( 211600000000000 miles ) long. The blue reflection nebula within LBN 534 is designated as vdB 158 and is lit by the bright star HD 222142.
There is also a planetary nebula PK110-12.1 located near the bottom center of the image. It was discovered by Luboš Kohoutek in 1963, the same astronomer that discovered Comet Kohoutek, which was visible to the naked eye in 1973. Planetary nebulae only last a few tens of thousands of years -- a mere blink in cosmic time -- before their material scatters into space. A "planetary" nebula is actually a shell of gas and dust that's ejected from a dying star. The name "planetary nebula" is a historical misclassification that comes from when astronomers first observed these objects. They thought they were looking at gas planets, and William Herschel named them after planets because they appeared round. PK110-12.1 appears dark green in this image. There are no green stars (another interesting topic), so see if you can locate it in the sea of dots.
Generally speaking, green colors in a nebula are due to forbidden transitions in ionized Oxygen. Forbidden transitions refer to transitions between energy levels that are not allowed by the selection rules of quantum mechanics under normal circumstances. However, they can still occur under certain conditions, such as in the presence of external fields or through higher-order processes.
Rio Rancho NM Bortle 5 zone, September 23-29, 2024
William Optics Redcat 51
ZWO 183mm pro
ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope and ZWO 120 Mini
Optolong R G B filters
ZWO ASI Air Pro
Sky-Watcher HEQ5
Darks GraXpert dithering
Gain 111 at -10C
Processed in DSS GraXpert and PS
A dim southern planetary nebula, located just 9° from the South Celestial Pole.
Designation: Caldwell 109, NGC 3195.
Constellation: Chamaeleon.
Magnitude: +11.5
Apparent size: 40 arc-sec.
Distance: 6,500 light years.
Date: 2020-07-23.
Exposure: 29 x 3 min = 56 min.
Field of View: 24.4 x 24.4 arcmin.
The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 colliding with and energising the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.
The Soap Bubble Nebula, or PN G75.5+1.7, is a very faint planetary nebula. It was discovered in July 6, 2008.
Imaged from Chiswick 12-30/8/2016 and 16/10-8/11/2017.
Altair 115ED/APO, AZ-EQ6, QSI683WSG
25 hours 30 minutes total integration (Ha 20x1800s + 22x600s all bin x1, OIII 12x1800s bin x1, 29x600 bin x2)
The two spiral arms winding towards the bright centre might deceive you into thinking you are looking at a galaxy a bit like our Milky Way. But the object starring in this image is of a different nature: PK 329-02.2 is a ‘planetary nebula’ within our home galaxy.
Despite the name, this isn’t a planet either. Planetary nebula is a misnomer that came about because of how much nebulas resembled giant, gaseous planets when looked through a telescope in the 1700s. Rather, what we see in this image is the last breath of a dying star.
When stars like the Sun are nearing the end of their lives, they let go of their gaseous outermost layers. As these clouds of stellar material move away from the central star they can acquire irregular and complex shapes. This complexity is evident in the faint scattered gas you see at the centre of the image. But there is also beautiful symmetry in PK 329-02.2, as the two bright blue spiral arms perfectly align with the two stars at the centre of the nebula.
It may look like the spiral arms are connected, but it is the stars that are companions. They are part of a visual binary, though only the one at the upper right gave rise to the nebula. While the stars will continue to orbit each other for millions or billions of years, the nebula – and its spiral arms – will spread out from the centre and eventually fade away over the next few thousands of years.
This planetary nebula with spiral arms is also known as Menzel 2, after the US astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered it in the 1920s. It is located in Norma, a constellation in the Southern celestial hemisphere where you can also find Menzel 1 and 3, two ‘bipolar planetary nebulas’ (shaped like butterflies or hourglasses).
Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 captured this image, which was processed using green, blue, red and infrared filters. Astrophotography-enthusiast Serge Meunier entered a version of this image into the 2012 Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Serge Meunier
Here is a different looking planetary nebula designated as NGC 2371 and 2372 found in the constellation Gemini. You can just start to make out the “wings” on either side of this nebula with a 54-minute exposure. Distance to this planetary nebula is listed at 4,400 light-years.
Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI290MC and ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF. 54 x 60 seconds at -10C plus darks and flats. Image Date: November 5, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Jones-Emberson 1 è una nebulosa planetaria nella costellazione della Lince: è anche conosciuta con il nome di Nebulosa Cuffia per via della sua forma caratteristica.
E' una nebulosa molto debole, infatti venne scoperta solo nel 1939 dai due astronomi che poi le hanno dato il nome.
La stella centrale è una caldissima nana bianca che, disperdendo nello spazio il materiale del suo guscio più esterno, ha formato la nebulosa planetaria: questo gas però è in espansione e tra qualche migliaio di anni si sarà talmente rarefatto nello spazio che la radiazione ultravioletta della stella non riuscirà più ad illuminarlo, e quindi la nebulosa non sarà più visibile agli occhi dei nostri futuri discendenti.
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Jones-Emberson 1 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Lynx: it is also known as the Headphone Nebula due to its characteristic shape.
It is a very faint nebula, in fact it was discovered only in 1939 by the two astronomers who then gave it its name.
The central star is a very hot white dwarf which, by dispersing the material of its outer shell into space, has formed the planetary nebula: this gas, however, is expanding and in a few thousand years it will have become so rarefied in space that the ultraviolet radiation of star will no longer be able to illuminate it, and therefore the nebula will no longer be visible.
Technical data
GSO RC12 Truss - Aperture 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm, f/8
Mount 10Micron GM2000 HPSII
Camera ZWO ASI 2600 MM Pro with filter wheel 7 positions
Filters Astrodon Gen2 E-Serie Tru-Balance 50mm unmounted RGB, Ha 5nm, OIII 5nm
Guiding system ZWO OAG-L with guide camera ASI 174MM
Exposure details:
R29x300", G 27x300", B 32x300", Ha 39x600", OIII 46x600"
all in bin3 -15C gain 100
Total integration time: 21h30'
Acquisition: Voyager, PHD2
Processing: Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator
SQM-L: 21.07
Location: Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy), own remote observatory
Date 31 January, 4/13/14 February 2024
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian, EQ6 Syntrek Mount & Modified Philips SPC 900NC Webcam.
Captured using Sharpcap
25 frames @ 25s
10 Dark frames
Processed using Deep Sky Stacker.
Levels slightly adjusted with G.I.M.P.
Sharpcap Settings:
[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera (LX Mode)]
Resolution=640x480
Colour Space / Compression=YUY2
Exposure (s)=25.2476670702873
Brightness=90
Contrast=40
Saturation=72
Gamma=3
ColorEnable=255
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=30
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius, approximately 650 light-years away from Earth. It is one of the closest and best-known examples of this type of nebula. The nebula's stunning, eye-like appearance has made it a favourite target for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers.
I tried this target many years ago and wanted to have another go and do it some justice. I grabbed a bucket load of data to see what the result would be. I love the teal colouring of the core. This wonderful colour is often removed during the processing stage, and this is something I wanted to retain in the final rendition. It’s such a lovely colour.
If you look closely, many tiny galaxies can be found throughout the field. There is even an interacting galaxy around the 3:30-4:00 o’clock position from the central star of the planetary (right where the dimmer nebula is fading to the background). The colourful stars add a nice balance.
Key Characteristics:
Shape and Appearance: The Helix Nebula resembles a giant, colourful eye, with a bright central region surrounded by a faint, extended halo. The inner part of the nebula is dense and consists of gases such as hydrogen and oxygen, while the outer regions are more diffuse.
Central Star: At the heart of the Helix Nebula is a white dwarf, the remnant of the star that created the nebula after shedding its outer layers. This white dwarf is extremely hot and emits intense ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the surrounding gas and causes the nebula to glow.
Size and Structure: It spans about 2.5 light-years across, and its physical structure is made up of complex knots of gas, sometimes referred to as cometary knots. These knots are dense, molecular clumps that were shaped by the intense radiation from the central star.
Colors: The vibrant colors of the nebula, often seen in images, come from the different elements present. Hydrogen emits red light, while oxygen emits a greenish-blue hue.
Formation: The Helix Nebula was formed when a dying star, similar to our Sun, ejected its outer layers into space at the end of its life. The remaining core became the white dwarf at the center.
Scientific Importance: As one of the closest planetary nebulae, the Helix Nebula provides astronomers with a valuable opportunity to study the late stages of stellar evolution. It offers insights into how stars like our Sun will evolve and eventually die.
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
Exposures:
Lum 111 X 900
Red 58 X 380
Green 49 X 380
Blue 58 X 380
Ha 61 X 1200
OIII 61 X 1200
Total exposure: 82.83 Hours
Thanks for looking
The Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27, M27 or NGC 6853) is a bright planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula. It is easily seen in binoculars and wide-field photographs. The central star is an extremely hot blueish subdwarf. The nebula was created by a dying star ejecting a shell of gas into space.
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 19h 59m 36.340s
Declination: +22° 43′ 16.09″
Apparent magnitude (V): 7.4
Apparent dimensions (V): 8.0′ × 5.6′
Constellation: Vulpecula
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 95 x 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: July 8, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
This beautiful nebula is called Helix nebula (NGC 7293) or Eye of God and sometimes called Eye of Sauron. Its the closest planetary nebula to the Earth about 450 light years in constellation of Aquarius. It is a dying star that blown out its outer shell. The remanent star in the middle of the nebula is a white dwarf that reaching its end of life and nearly finished the nuclear fuel. The colors of this object is due to presence of the very hot white dwarf that energize the central part of the nebula in green from the ionized Oxygen. The outer part is Hydrogen gas glows in Red. Just imagine that, those gases are expanding at rate of 40 km per second. Gear setup: ES 102ED FCD100 f/5.6, Optolong L-extreme, ZWO ASI294 MC @ 0 gain 100, iOptron GEM45 guided by ZWO mini scope 120f/4 ZWO ASI 120MM-S. Acquisition by APT 35 x 300sec, Darks 20, Bias 50, Flats 20, nearly 3 hours of integration, Stacked by DSS and processed by PS, Topaz Denoise AI.
This is the planetary nebula NGC 7048 found in the constellation Cygnus. This planetary nebula has an apparent magnitude of 12.1 and is about 5,260 light years away.
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 24h 14m 15.25s
Declination: +46° 17′ 16.1″
Distance: 5260 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 12.1
Apparent diameter: 1.02′
Constellation: Cygnus
Designations: PK 088-01 1, PN ARO 41, IRAS 21124+4604
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90 SCT Telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 135 x 60 seconds, Celestron CGX-L pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: July 24, 2025. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
This beautiful object is catalogued as IC 5148, also known as the "Spare Tire Nebula". It is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Grus, approximately 3,000 light-years from Earth. This nebula, discovered in 1894 by Australian astronomer Walter Gale, is notable for its near-spherical shape and its relatively fast expansion rate of about 50 kilometers per second, making it one of the fastest-expanding planetary nebulae known.
Here are some key characteristics of IC 5148:
1.Shape and Structure: The nebula has a distinct, ring-like appearance, resembling a "spare tire" due to its nearly perfect roundness. The core is denser with bright rims, while the outer layers are more diffuse. It exhibits a strikingly symmetrical, bubble-like form, a result of the expanding shell of ionized gas.
2.Composition: IC 5148, like other planetary nebulae, consists mainly of ionized hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The central star has shed its outer layers, which are now illuminated by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the hot, dying core. This ionization gives the nebula its characteristic glow in the visible spectrum, with hues often appearing in pinks and greens when observed through telescopes.
3.Central Star: The nebula’s core is a white dwarf—a remnant of the original star that once occupied this region. The central star's intense radiation energizes the surrounding gases, causing them to fluoresce.
4.Expansion and Evolution: IC 5148's rapid expansion indicates it is a relatively young planetary nebula, which means it was only recently formed in astronomical terms, possibly a few thousand years ago. Over time, the nebula will continue to expand and dissipate into space.
IC 5148’s structure and symmetry make it an attractive object of study, especially for understanding the life cycles of stars similar to the Sun, as planetary nebulae represent a late stage in stellar evolution before a star cools to become a white dwarf.
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
Exposures:
Lum 41 X 600 Bin 1
Red 20 X 380 Bin 2
Green 24 X 380 Bin 2
Blue 24 X 380 Bin 2
Ha 24 X 1200 Bin 1
OIII 24 X 1200 Bin 2
Total Exposure: 30 Hours
Thanks for looking
Also known as the 'Eye of
God' or 'The eye of Sauron', The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius, lying at an approximate distance of 700lyrs away and a radius of 3lyrs across.
What we are seeing in this image is a star at the end of it's evolutionary process on its way towards becoming a white dwarf.
The Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 7.5, but is not visible to the naked eye easily, due to it's low surface brightness.
Shot from Hunter Valley Area north of Sydney Australia in Sept 2017
Exposure Time: 5mins per exposure/shot equalling:
2hrs 30mins of Luminous Channel
1hr 15mins each of RGB at 3hrs 45mins for colour channels
Total Image exposure of : 6hrs 15mins
Notes: this image was taken under difficult sky conditions and also could have done with alot more data, however the skies decided to not clear enough for me to get more data so there we have it for this year at least.
Equipment Used:
Telescope: William Optics 110Triplet
Mount: Paramount MYT
Camera: Atik One+OAG
Filters: Astronomik
Software Capture: The SkyX
Software Processing: Pixinsight
NGC 5189 is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Musca, about 1,780 light-years away from Earth. It is notable for its complex and striking structure, which resembles a barred spiral galaxy due to its distinct S-shaped pattern.
Some Key Features of NGC 5189:
Structure: Unlike typical planetary nebulae, which often appear as simple circular or elliptical shapes, NGC 5189 has a complex and irregular morphology. The nebula's most distinctive feature is its S-shaped appearance, formed by bright, twisted filaments of gas that stretch across its extent.
Formation: The nebula's unusual shape is likely a result of interactions between the fast winds from a dying star, the central stellar remnant (likely a white dwarf), and the previously ejected material. The intense radiation from the central star ionizes the expelled gases, causing them to glow and form intricate structures.
Central Star: The central star of NGC 5189 is a hot and dense remnant of a star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel and shed its outer layers. This stellar remnant emits intense ultraviolet radiation that ionizes the surrounding gas, contributing to the nebula's luminosity and vibrant colours.
Colors and Composition: The nebula's colours, ranging from blues and greens to reds, are due to different elements within the gas clouds being ionized. Oxygen often appears blue-green, hydrogen appears red, and nitrogen can create reddish hues, giving the nebula its distinct appearance.
Observations: NGC 5189 has been extensively studied using both ground-based telescopes and space observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope. The high-resolution images reveal its intricate, filamentary structures, providing insights into the late stages of stellar evolution and the dynamics of planetary nebulae.
Significance: NGC 5189 is an excellent example of how the end stages of stellar evolution can produce remarkably diverse and beautiful structures in space. It serves as a case study for understanding the physical processes that shape planetary nebulae and the fate of stars similar in mass to our Sun.
NGC 5189's unique shape and vivid colours make it one of the more visually striking planetary nebulae observed in our galaxy.
NGC 5189 has an angular size of 2.33 X 2.33 arc mins, presenting a little challenge with a 10-inch telescope. As an experiment, I tried drizzling the data and upscaling by 2 to see what the result would be. I captured Ha, luminance, red, green, and blue filtered light to create a coloured Ha-LRGB image.
I love the teal colours present in many Planetary Nebula. To my eye, the teal-coloured inner symmetric knots are stunning, the highlight of the image. The contrasting red S encasing the inner filaments is so cool. It looks like something from a sci-fi movie: an ancient structure containing a glowing cosmic beacon against a backdrop of stars.
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STXL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Exposures:
Lum 60 X 600
Red 24 X 380
Green 15 X 380 Binned 2
Blue 32 X 380 Binned 2
Ha 1200 X 56 Binned 2
Total Time: 36.15 Hours
Thanks for looking
This is the planetary nebula called The Eskimo Nebula or NGC 2392. It is a double-shell planetary nebula located in the constellation Gemini. Radial velocity measurements reveal that this diameter of the cloud is growing at a rate of 68 miles per second (Burnham, 1978).
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 07h 29m 10.7669s
Declination: +20° 54′ 42.488″
Distance: 6520±560 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 10.1
Apparent dimensions (V): 48″ × 48″
Constellation: Gemini
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 35 x 60 seconds, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: January 3, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
A scene from a star-forming factory shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This Hubble picture captures incredible details in the dusty clouds in a star-forming region called the Tarantula Nebula. What’s possibly the most amazing aspect of this detailed image is that this nebula isn’t even in our galaxy. Instead, it’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is located about 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region not just in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but in the entire group of nearby galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.
The Tarantula Nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some of which are roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun. The scene pictured here is located away from the centre of the nebula, where there is a super star cluster called R136, but very close to a rare type of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that have lost their outer shell of hydrogen and are extremely hot and luminous, powering dense and furious stellar winds.
This nebula is a frequent target for Hubble, whose multiwavelength capabilities are critical for capturing sculptural details in the nebula’s dusty clouds. The data used to create this image come from an observing programme called Scylla, named for a multi-headed sea monster from the Greek myth of Ulysses. The Scylla programme was designed to complement another Hubble observing programme called ULYSSES (Ultraviolet Legacy library of Young Stars as Essential Standards). ULYSSES targets massive young stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, while Scylla investigates the structures of gas and dust that surround these stars.
[Image Description: A nebula. The top-left is dense with layers of fluffy pink and greenish clouds. Long strands of green clouds stretch out from here; a faint layer of translucent blue dust combines with them to create a three-dimensional scene. A sparse network of dark dust clouds in the foreground adds reddish-black patches atop the nebula. Blue-white and orange stars, from our galaxy and beyond, are spread amongst the clouds.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray; CC BY 4.0
The swirling, paint-like clouds in the darkness of space in this stunning image seem surreal, like a portal to another world opening before us. In fact, the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is very real. We are seeing vast clouds of ionized atoms thrown into space by a dying star. This is a planetary nebula named Kohoutek 4-55, a member of the Milky Way galaxy situated just 4,600 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan).
Planetary nebulae are the spectacular final display at the end of a giant star’s life. Once a red giant star has exhausted its available fuel and shed its last layers of gas, its compact core will contract further, enabling a final burst of nuclear fusion. The exposed core reaches extremely hot temperatures, radiating ultraviolet light that energizes the enormous clouds of gas cast off by the star. The ultraviolet light ionizes atoms in the gas, making the clouds glow brightly. In this image, red and orange indicate nitrogen, green is hydrogen, and blue shows oxygen. Kohoutek 4-55 has an uncommon, multi-layered form: a faint layer of gas surrounds a bright inner ring, all wrapped in a broad halo of ionized nitrogen. The spectacle is bittersweet, as the brief phase of fusion in the core will end after only tens of thousands of years, leaving a white dwarf that will never illuminate the clouds around it again.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #PlanetaryNebula #nebula
A Dying Star in Sagittarius
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Image exposure: 61 minutes
Image size: 36.9 x 23.7 arcmin
Image date: 2022-07-30
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Abell 39 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Hercules. This quirky, delightful bauble is one of those deep-sky objects I’ve wanted to photograph since the moment I learned of it. Planetary nebulae are usually admired for their remarkable shapes and structures, but Abell 39 is striking to me for rather the opposite reason: it appears as an almost perfectly spherical, turquoise, soap bubble, with ripple-like shimmers of structure throughout. Amidst the negative space of a relatively featureless, dusty black backdrop of space, dotted with galaxies and stars, Abell 39 captures my imagination a delightful way. Like some sort of cosmic being’s child blew a bubble that has yet to pop.
I photographed Abell 39 during a few nights of camping in April and May 2024 in Skull Valley, located in Utah’s west desert, United States. Edited in PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop using 13 hours and 55 minutes of images.
Equipment Used
Celestron EdgeHD 8 SCT (0.7x Reducer)
- ZWO ASI2600MM Pro, ASI2600MC Pro Duo
- Astronomik MaxFR OIII
- Rainbow Astro RST 135E
- ZWO ASIAir Plus
Takahashi ε180D (1.5x Extender)
- ZWO ASI2600MC Pro Duo
- ZWO AM5
- ZWO ASIAir Plus
For more information about Abell 39, technical information about how this was photographed, post-processing notes, see:
mypetstars.com/astrophotography/Abell39
Creative Commons License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED
Attribute to James Peirce