View allAll Photos Tagged PlanetaryNebula
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
-------------------------------------------
Image exposure: 61 minutes
Image size: 36.9 x 23.7 arcmin
Image date: 2022-07-30
-------------------------------------------
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
This is one of the closest planetary nebulae to the Earth. This is the remnant of a recently expired star.
See updated version:
www.flickr.com/photos/astrothad/35435685824/in/dateposted/
Stack of 10 2 minute exposures taken with a 9.25" Celestron Edge HD at f/2.3 with Hyperstar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD camera. Preprocessing done in Nebulosity, with stacking and processing done in PixInsight. Final touches in PS CS 5.1
Gas and dust ejected by a dying star at the heart of NGC 1514 came into complete focus thanks to mid-infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Its rings, which are only detected in infrared light, now look like “fuzzy” clumps arranged in tangled patterns, and a network of clearer holes close to the central stars shows where faster material punched through.
This scene has been forming for at least 4,000 years — and will continue to change over many more millennia. At the center are two stars that appear as one in Webb’s observation, and are set off with brilliant diffraction spikes. The stars follow a tight, elongated nine-year orbit and are draped in an arc of dust represented in orange.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), Dave Jones (IAC)
#NASAMarshall #NASA #JWST #NASAWebb #NASAGoddard #PlanetaryNebula #nebula
M97: The Owl Nebula in the constellation of Ursa Major [Blue 'Owl eyes]
M108: The Surfboard Galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major [Bottom Right]. Also known as NGC 3556.
First run at this target on a moonless night.
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: William Optics GTF81
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
F: No Filters
G: PHD2
GC: ZWO ASI120mini
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -15 DegC
Gain 139
11 x Exp 600s
Frames: 11 Lights; 2 Darks; 200 flats
60% Crop
Capture: SharpCap
Processed: DSS; PS; Grad Exterminator.
Sky: No Moon, calm, no cloud, cold, excellent seeing.
M97: 2.03 thousand light years distant.
M108: 45.9 million light years distant.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near-infrared shows a complex scene of multiple outflows expanding out at different angles from a dying star at the centre of the scene. These outflows push gas toward the equatorial plane, forming a disc.
Astronomers suspect there is at least one other star interacting with the material cast off by the central dying star, creating the abnormal appearance of this planetary nebula.
In this image, the red areas represent cool molecular gas, for example, molecular hydrogen.
[Image description: colourful mostly red image of near-infrared light from a glowing cloud with a distorted, asymmetrical shape, illuminated from within by a bright central star. The asymmetrical shape resembles paint splattered on the ground. In the centre of this image, a light blue glow casts over areas of dark pockets that appear dark blue and are traced with orange material. It has a clumpy appearance. The shells become a deeper red with distance from the centre. The shells appear as lobes that push gas toward the equatorial plane, forming a disc. The background of the image is black and speckled with tiny bright stars and distant galaxies.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; CC BY 4.0
For this new Picture of the Month feature, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided a fantastic new view of IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. With Webb, researchers can study the properties and growth of dust grains within protoplanetary discs like this one, shedding light on the earliest stages of planet formation.
In stellar nurseries across the galaxy, baby stars are forming in giant clouds of cold gas. As young stars grow, the gas surrounding them collects in narrow, dusty protoplanetary discs. This sets the scene for the formation of planets, and observations of distant protoplanetary discs can help researchers understand what took place roughly 4.5 billion years ago in our own Solar System, when the Sun, Earth, and the other planets formed.
IRAS 04302+2247, or IRAS 04302 for short, is a beautiful example of a protostar – a young star that is still gathering mass from its environment – surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which baby planets might be forming. Webb is able to measure the disc at 65 billion km across – several times the diameter of our Solar System. From Webb’s vantage point, IRAS 04302’s disc is oriented edge-on, so we see it as a narrow, dark line of dusty gas that blocks the light from the budding protostar at its centre. This dusty gas is fuel for planet formation, providing an environment within which young planets can bulk up and pack on mass.
When seen face-on, protoplanetary discs can have a variety of structures like rings, gaps and spirals. These structures can be signs of baby planets that are burrowing through the dusty disc, or they can point to phenomena unrelated to planets, like gravitational instabilities or regions where dust grains are trapped. The edge-on view of IRAS 04302’s disc shows instead the vertical structure, including how thick the dusty disk is. Dust grains migrate to the midplane of the disc, settle there and form a thin, dense layer that is conducive to planet formation; the thickness of the disc is a measure of how efficient this process has been.
The dense streak of dusty gas that runs vertically across this image cocoons IRAS 04302, blotting out its bright light such that Webb can more easily image the delicate structures around it. As a result, we’re treated to the sight of two gauzy nebulas on either side of the disc. These are reflection nebulas, illuminated by light from the central protostar reflecting off of the nebular material. Given the appearance of the two reflection nebulas, IRAS 04302 has been nicknamed the 'Butterfly Star'.
This view of IRAS 04302 features observations from Webb's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), combined with optical data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Together, these powerful facilities paint a fascinating multiwavelength portrait of a planetary birthplace. Webb reveals the distribution of tiny dust grains as well as the reflection of near-infrared light off of dusty material that extends a large distance from the disc, while Hubble focuses on the dust lane as well as clumps and streaks surrounding the dust that suggest the star is still collecting mass from its surroundings as well as shooting out jets and outflows.
The Webb observations of IRAS 04302 were taken as part of the Webb GO programme #2562 (PI F. Ménard, K. Stapelfeldt). This programme investigates four protoplanetary discs that are oriented edge-on from our point of view, aiming to understand how dust evolves within these discs. The growth of dust grains in protoplanetary discs is believed to be an important step toward planet formation.
[Image description: A wide-field image of IRAS 16594-4656 taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The nebula’s bright core is split by a narrow dark band, with expansive rainbow lobes of light and colour radiating outward. Numerous background galaxies and stars are visible across the field.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Villenave et al.; CC BY 4.0
A bright planetary nebula in the constellation Pegasus
20 hours 30 minutes total capture
R 19x300s
G 20x300s
B 20x300s
L 21x900s
Ha 11x1800s
OIII 10x1800s
Image captured remotely at Alcalali, Spain
APM TMB 152 F8 LZOS, 10 Micron GM2000HPS, QSI6120ws8
I have always loved imaging planetary nebula. They are so varied in shape and form but always beautiful in their presentation. At times it’s difficult to forget that they are the result of some pretty extreme forces, good old explosions, and a bit of general stellar carnage.
The photo was constructed using a monochrome camera with four filters: Lum, Red, Green, and Blue. Once combined into a traditional RGB Colour image, we can see a massive range in star colours across the field. I think this is always a treat to see in astrophotography.
This object is located in the southern hemisphere in the constellation of Vela. In 1966, James D. Wray catalogued this wonderful PN. It is pretty small, around 2 acr min and fairly dim around magnitude 15.
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 12X600
Green 12X600
Blue 12X600
Lum 44 X 900
Total Exposure 17 Hours.
Thanks for looking
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
Ha: 18x15min
OIII: 18x15min
Software: SGP, PHD2, APCC, Pixinsight
9 hrs total exposure
IC 1805 is an emission nebula in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, approximately 7500 light years from earth. The brightest part of the nebula (to the right) is separately classified as NGC 896. The open cluster of stars in the middle of the "heart" is known as Melotte 15.
Also visible in the upper left quadrant is the recently (1995) discovered planetary nebula WeBo 1 (also known as PN G135.6+01.0).
Rio Rancho NM Bortle 5 zone,
Oct/Nov, 2023
William Optics Redcat 51
ZWO 183mm pro
ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope and ZWO 120 Mini
Optolong Ha SII and OIII filters
ZWO ASI Air Pro
Sky-Watcher HEQ5
348 X 300s Ha
284 x 300s OIII
280 x 300s SII
Darks GraXpert dithering
Gain 111 at -10C
Processed in DSS and PS
The mid-infrared view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows expanding circular shells around the outflows from the dying central star, which astronomers suspect is that pinkish white dot at the centre of the image. The longer wavelengths captured by Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) highlight the dust being cast off by the central dying star.
In this image, the blue represents cool molecular gas seen in red in the image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) due to colour mapping.
[Image description: colourful, mostly blue, image of mid-infrared light from a glowing cloud with a distorted, asymmetrical shape. A star at the centre of the image is a small point of pinkish-white light. The asymmetrical shape of the expanding cloud of gas and dust resembles paint splattered on the ground. The filaments of the expanding shells are wispy, and mostly white and blue. The shells appear as lobes that push gas toward the equatorial plane, forming a disc. A perfect circle of white-ish blue dust traces the outer edges of the shells. The background of the image is black and speckled with tiny bright stars and distant galaxies.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; CC BY 4.0
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 small, hot star. Radiation from the star causes the shed outer layer to heat to about 10,000 degrees Celsius and become visible as a planetary nebula. The nebula 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. (ref: Wikipedia)
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 00h 13m 01.015s
Declination: +72° 31′ 19.08″
Distance: 1,619 pc
Apparent magnitude (V): 11.6
Apparent dimensions (V): 38″ × 35″
Constellation:Cepheus
Designations:Bow-Tie Nebula, Caldwell 2, PN G120.0+09.8
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 81 x 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: August 25, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
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: Meade 12” LX-90 SCT Telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 134 x 60 seconds, Celestron CGX-L pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: July 4, 2025. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
IC 351 is a Planetary Nebula in the constellation Perseus. It has a visual magnitude of 11.9 and I have found very few images of it. The inset image is a clipping from the side field and aggressively stretched to bring out any type of color and details.
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 81 Minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: November 7, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Messier 97 is a planetary nebula in Ursa Major estimated to be about 2600 light years away.
The 16th magnitude central star is about 0.7 solar masses and is a remnant white dwarf having shed its outer layers about 6000 years ago based on the expansion of the nebula and then working backwards.
The nebula has a mass of about 0.15 solar masses.
Our own Sun may eventually meet a fate like this.
The remnant white dwarf has a surface temperature in the tens of thousands of degrees and glows brightly in UV causing fluorescence of oxygen (green-blue) and hydrogen (red) in the nebula.
36 x 6 minute exposures. Processed and drizzled in PixInsight
iTelescope T3
Takahashi 150/1095mm refractor
SBIG CCD camera 2048 x 2048 pixels.
Image centred on:
RA: 11h 14m 49.475s
Dec: +55d 01m 5.361s
Field of view 33.4 x 34.1 arcminute
Image scale 0.69 arcsec/pxl
The planetary nebula RCW61 forms the feet of the Running Chicken nebula complex (IC 2944, IC 2948) in Centaurus.
RCW61 is ionised by three O9 giant stars: HD 100099 (O9 III), CD -62 535 (O9 II) and HD 100444 (O9 II), as well as three B-class stars.
RA: 11h 29m 33.65s
DEC: -63° 48' 31.5"
Location: Centaurus
Acquisition May 2020
Total acquisition time of 18 hours.
Technical Details
Data acquisition: Martin PUGH
Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND
Location: El Sauce Observatory, Rio Hurtado, Chile
R 8 x 1200 sec
G 8 x 1200 sec
B 8 x 1200 sec
Ha 23 x 1800 sec
OIII 20 x 1800 sec
Optics: Planewave 17“ CDK @ F6.8
Mount: Paramount ME
CCD: SBIG STXL-11002 (AOX)
Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
edit: reprocessed totally with new workflow :)
in memory and dedicated to Mario Monaco, stargazer and great Italian astroimager, Savona area, which was one of my examples during my childhood and adolescence, and he was a frequent visitor of the Cugn Goria, this plateau on the italian western Alps, that is almost an open-air sky theater, and where he photographed, those photos that for me will remain the masterpieces in film. I'm sorry that you have not had time to meet him in person
:(
please read here:
www.uai.it/pubblicazioni/uainews/1-uainews-archivio/7938-...uranialigustica.altervista.org/astrofili/persone/monaco.htm
this shot was 2 hours and half on the Helix in mixed iso 2500/3200 with 130/910mm apo triplet and CentralDS 50D from Cugn di Goria, western Alps
The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula, formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which sheds its outer layers near the end of its evolution. Gases from the star in the surrounding space appear, from our vantage point, as if we are looking down a helix structure. The remnant central stellar core, known as a planetary nebula nucleus, is destined to become a white dwarf star. The observed glow of the central star is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly fluoresce.
The Helix Nebula in the constellation of Aquarius lies about 700 light-years away, spanning about 2.5 light-years.
7h5m total integration (R,G 15 subs, B 14, Ha 23 bin2, OIII 18 bin2). Alcalalí, Spain 19-23/8/2017.
APM TMB 152 F8 LZOS, 10 Micron GM2000HPS, QSI6120wsg8
The Ring Nebula
A planetary nebula - a star has ejected its outer layers as it nears the end of its life. The central remnant white dwarf gives off extremely hard UV light which makes the shells of gas fluoresce. Blue/Green is Oxygen. Red is Hydrogen and Nitrogen. Yellow is an overlap of Green + Red.
At a diameter of 1 arc minute, it is only about 60 pixels across at this image scale. The central white dwarf which has a surface temp of about 100000c can just be seen.
Diameter is 1 arcminute
ZWO ASI2600MC 61 x 3 minute subs at gain 100, offset 50 at 0c.
Equinox ED 900mm f/7.5 scope x0.85 focal reducer.
IDAS P3 LPS 2" filter in focal reducer.
SkyWatcher EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives.
Guided by PHD2 via PrimaLuce 240mm f/4 guidescope.
Atmospheric
Clear throughout. No subs lost.
Light pollution; 20.02 measured with Unihedron SQM (L)
Calibration
50 flats (EL panel at 1/4 second)
50 darks at 0c
50 bias at 0c and 1/16000s
Processing
PixInsight 1.8.8
Polar Alignment:
“Resume from Park” - I left the scope up from last time.
Error measured by PHD2= 0.2 arc minute.
RA drift + 1.27 arcsec/min
Dec drift +0.05 arcsec/min
Guiding:
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/PrimaLuce Lab 240/60mm guide scope. Multi-star guiding.
RA RMS error 0.61 arcsec.
Dec RMS error 0.64 arcsec.
Astrometry:
Resolution ............... 0.987 arcsec/px
Focal distance ........... 785.59 mm
Pixel size ............... 3.76 um
Field of view ............ 33' 10.2" x 26' 8.7"
Image center ............. RA: 18 53 35.937 Dec: +33 01 49.32
There was a little tilt between focuser draw tube and focal reducer which distorted the stars. I used Free Transform in Photoshop to distort and tilt the image back again!
Overall, I need to get the colour balance sorted out and probably use no more than about 2 minute exposures.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory contributes to the understanding of planetary nebulas by studying the hottest and most energetic processes still at work in these beautiful objects. X-ray data from Chandra reveal winds being driven away from the white dwarf so quickly (i.e., millions of miles per hour) that they create shock waves during collisions with slower-moving material previously ejected by the star. Chandra’s exceptional vision in X-rays contributes to the understanding of this brief, yet important, stage of stars’ lives. Here is the NGC 3242 planetary nebula that has been observed both by Chandra and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI/Univ. Washington, B.Balick
#NASA #NASAMarshall #Chandra #solarsystemandbeyond #planetarynebula
A planetary nebula 2,500 light years away in the constellation Lyra. Planetary Nebula are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding area by a star in the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf. (Wikipedia)
53 180s lights (2 hours 40 minutes) with 39 flats and 53 bias. Dithered.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100.
ISO: 400. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector. IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box and a white t-shirt.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - Stellarium Scope, Stellarium, Poth Hub, EQMOD, All Sky Plate Solver, PHD Guiding 2 and PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and edited in Star Tools.
Moon: - 50% waning, rose at 3pm when it was already getting light.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 8 in Davyhulme, Manchester.
Seeing: - Good
Notes: - Having set up for about 9pm it was still very much daytime; the north star finally appear at about 10pm but it was getting on 10.30 before I could do the SharpCap polar alignment. According to the FLO clear skies app, it was the first night with just twilight and no night. I had to do some weeding while waiting to get going. Also, it went down below 0 which is crazy for the middle of May. I am glad I a dithering these days and not relying on darks with the major shifts in temperature.
How I will get on as the days get even longer will be interesting. It must take a week to get any decent exposure time.
NGC 6765 is a small dim planetary nebula in the constellation Lyra, overshadowed by the Ring Nebula (Messier 57) which is only about 4-degrees away. The magnitude of this planetary nebula hovers around 13 and it only measures 0.67 arcmin wide. You can just start to see evidence of an outer shell on the upper part of the nebula.
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90 (f/10), ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, 54x60 second exposures, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using Sequence Generator Pro and processed using PixInsight. Image date: October 8, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1) et Abell 6 sont un duo de nébuleuses planétaires de la constellation de Cassiopée.
L'étoile centrale de HFG1 est une binaire de mag 14.5. Elle laisse derrière elle une queue de gas de 20' au moins. Elle serait agée de 10000 ans environ.
La structure de HFG1 présente un arc de cercle à l'opposé de la queue, c'est à dire dans la direction de déplacement de la nébuleuse, ce qui laisse penser qu'il s'agit d'un front d'onde de choc de matière interagissant avec le millieu interstellaire.
Abell 6 est un exemple de nébuleuse planétaire en forme de bulle. Elle reste cependant assez faible (Mag=15). Elle émet plus en OIII qu'en Ha.
M27, also called The Dumbbell Nebula (also known NGC 6853) it is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years.
Taken with an AT8RC f/8 mounted on a Losmandy G11 using a Canon 450d(modified), an Astro-Tech Field Flattener and a LPS-P2-48 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
28 minutes (7x 4min.) of exposure at ISO1600
Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker and post processed in PS CS5
Stanotte sono andato a letto alle 4.30AM per fotografare il cielo. In questa immagine, nel cuore silenzioso della Vulpecula, a circa 1.200 anni luce da noi, si espande lentamente la Nebulosa Manubrio — M27 — prima nebulosa planetaria mai identificata da occhi umani,
traccia visibile dell’ultimo respiro di una stella simile al nostro Sole. Un guscio di gas ionizzati largo quasi tre anni luce,
che brilla nel tempo come una lanterna sospesa tra i secoli.
Questa immagine, raccolta in 70 minuti di posa attraverso il filtro SVBONY 220 e con con lo SkyWatcher 200/1000, è il tentativo di cogliere la bellezza del cosmo sempre lottando contro le luci della città
#nebulosamanubrio #M27 #astrofotografia #deepSky #astrophotography #nebulosaplanetaria #planetarynebula #vulpecula #skywatcher2001000 #svbony220 #spaziosiderale #universo #nightsky #cieloprofonde #cosmicbeauty #astronomylover #stelle #telescopephotography #longexposure #astrofoto #padova
The planetary nebula Abell 30, (a.k.a. A30), is located about 5,500 light years from Earth. Close-up views of A30 show X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope. A planetary nebula is formed in the late stage of the evolution of a sun-like star, after it expands to become a red giant. In the case of A30, a planetary nebula formed but then the star briefly reverted to being a red giant. The evolution of the planetary nebula then restarted, making it reborn, a special phase of evolution that is rarely seen.
Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/IAA-CSIC/M.Guerrero et al); Inset Optical (NASA/STScI)
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #nebula #PlanetaryNebula
Here's a little experiment. The dotted line is the International Space Station (ISS) passing through the field of view of my small telescope, very near the interesting little object known as NGC 246, a planetary nebula sometimes called the Skull Nebula in the constellation Cetus.
This wasn't by chance. Watching for these sorts of coincidences, I consulted the trusty sky simulation software SkySafari and noticed that the path of the station would take it in front of a few interesting features in the sky, in addition to this one: M13, the Great Hercules Globular cluster in Hercules, Vega, the brightest star in Lyra, and The Veil Nebula in Cygnus.
Because of the tremendous difference in brightness, I captured the ISS and the nebula field separately. (The ISS is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon and Venus). For the ISS pass, I made a short video with a Nikon Z 6 mirrorless camera and Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 refractor. The image of NGC 246 was made afterward with a ZWO ASI294MC camera and Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens @200mm, 15 6-minute exposures processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Lightroom. The ISS track is in the correct position and scale, composited in Photoshop. In addition, the inset is an enlargement of a few video frames and shows some detail in the ISS.
#astrophotography, #ISS
Two infrared views of NGC 1514. At left is an observation from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). At right is a more refined image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
[Image description: Two views of the same planetary nebula cataloged NGC 1514, split down the middle. Both show roughly the same features, an outline of a cylinder tipped to the right with a large blob of material in the middle. At the center of the blob is a bright star. At left is the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) view. The outlines of the cylinder are orange and thicker, and within it is a bright green irregular cloud with a larger blue central star. This view has hazier lines, and colors that appear to bleed into one another. At right is the view from the James Webb Space Telescope. The outline of the cylinder is clearer with crisp, wispy details. Where the cylinder appears to connect at top left and bottom right, the outline forms shallow V-shapes. It’s a lot easier to see where material begins, ends, and overlaps. In both images, the background of space is black. The WISE image shows bright blue orbs. The Webb image shows tiny pinpoints of light.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL, Caltech, UCLA, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), Dave Jones (IAC); CC BY 4.0
An odd couple that is separated in the sky by less than one degree but which are at least 45 million light years apart in space. The Owl (M97) is a planetary nebula that is a few thousand light years from earth while M108 (on the right) is a spiral galaxy that is perhaps 45 million light years distant. Both of these objects appear in the constellation Ursa Major (a.k.a. “The Big Dipper”).
Image capture was done over two evenings in early February 2015 using an unmodified Sony NEX-5N digital camera (ISO 800, 60 seconds x 384, producing a total exposure integration time of 6 hours and 24 minutes). The imaging telescope was a 5” refractor working at an effective focal length of 528mm at f/4.2. The setup also included the use of a light-pollution filter that causes about a two-thirds f-stop loss in broadband light transmission (a necessary "evil" given my significantly light-polluted, red-zone skies).
Image processing was done with PixInsight v1.8 and Photoshop CC2014.
This photo is best viewed against a dark background and at full size (1920 x 1280 pixels, press the "L" key to enter the Flickr light box and then click to enlarge the image).
All rights reserved.
The Owl Nebula also known as M97 or NGC 3587 is a planetary nebula approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
Estimated to be about 8,000 years old, it is approximately circular in cross-section with a faint internal structure. The owl-like appearance of the nebula is the result of an inner shell that is not circularly symmetric, but instead forms a barrel-like structure aligned at an angle of 45° to the line of sight.
The 14th magnitude central star has passed the turning point in its evolution and is condensing to form a white dwarf. [Wikipedia]
Imaged using the Celestron C14 Edge HD telescope in dome 4 at Los Coloraos observatory in Gorafe, Spain.
A high resolution image with imaging details can be found on my Astrobin page at: astrob.in/nx1by2/0/
Thank you for looking.
Technical summary:
Captured: 3 Nights in May 2024
Location: Turismo Astronómico, Los Coloraos, Gorafe, Spain
Bortle Class: 3
Total Integration: 11 hours, 30 minutes
Filters: Red 29 x 180s, Green 31 x 180s, Blue 33 x 180s, UV/IR 155 x 120s, Ha 17 x 180s, Oiii 17 x 180
Pixel Scale: 0.4 arcsec/pixel
Telescope: Celestron C14 Edge HD
Image Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM Pro
Filters: Astronomik R, G, B, UV/IR, Ha, Oiii
Mount: Skywatcher EQ 8
Computer: Minix NUC
Capture software: NINA, PHD2
Editing software: PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom
My first try at imaging M27.
Canon 350D attached to 10" Newtonian at prime focus (f/6.3), mounted on an EQ6 Pro. Stack of 15 images, 300s @ ISO 800
These two Messier objects lie quite close together, see previous image for a full frame view.
M97. The Owl planetary nebula is about 3.7 arcminutes across in our sky but is actually 0.91 light years in diameter. It lies about 2600 light years distant. The central star has shed its outer layers which glow either red (hydrogen) or green-blue (oxygen) lit by the intense UV light of the remnant white dwarf star in the centre. Eventually, the star will cool and the gas will expand until the nebula fades away. It estimated that the nebula is about 6000 years old based on its size and expansion rate. Our own Sun may eventually suffer a similar fate.
A gravitational effect has formed a constrained tube of gas near the star before it expands into a sphere. We are looking down at about 45 degrees to the axis of the tube, these effects produce an "owl face" from our perspective.
Barred spiral galaxy M108 is about 45 million light years away and is almost edge on from our perspective. It’s 8.7 x 2.2 arcminutes diameter in our sky. It lacks a prominent core or bulge but has numerous dark dust lanes. It’s possible to see
a small yellow core at its centre (yellow or red stars tend to be old and mature) brownish dust lanes, pink hydrogen alpha zones and two bright blue "stellar associations” of young intensely bright stars at this magnification.
A Type II supernovae was observed here in 1969.
Technical card on previous full frame image.
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 the dying star ejecting a shell of gas into space. The inset image was further processed to bring out additional detail in the shell.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, Canon 6D stock camera, ISO 3200, 25 x 60 second exposures with dark/bias frames, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Image date: September 2, 2018. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
Planetary nebula HB 5, an end phase of a Sun-like star, was discovered by famous astronomer Edwin Hubble. X-rays from hot gas in HB 5 are detected by Chandra. X-rays from Chandra (blue and white); optical from Hubble (red, purple, blue); radio image from ALMA (yellow and white)
Visual Description:
This composite image of the planetary nebula HB 5 resembles a bulbous bow tie in mottled purples. This is a Sun-like star towards the end of its life. At the heart of the nebula, or the brilliant golden white knot of the bow tie, is a recent mass ejection from the dying star. To its right and left are matching bulbous spheres of churning purple gas. Each sphere of gas is several times larger than the exploding knot between them. Also present in the nebula are faint clouds in neon blue and mustard yellow. The blue cloud, most prominent at our upper left, represents X-rays observed by Chandra. The mustard yellow cloud, which highlights the star’s recent mass ejection, represents carbon monoxide gas observed in radio waves by ALMA.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Radio: NSF/ESO/NRAO/ALMA/RIT (P. Moraga Baez, J. Kastner); Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand, J. Major
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #nebula #PlanetaryNebula
This view of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302, comes from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Compared to its appearance in visible light, the Butterfly Nebula looks gauzy at near-infrared wavelengths. The red colour that’s most prevalent in this view shows light from hydrogen, while green and blue come from iron that has been ionised.
This Hubble image highlights the Butterfly Nebula’s bipolar shape, showing how its two lobes spread in opposite directions, forming the ‘wings’ of the butterfly. A dark band of dusty gas poses as the butterfly’s ‘body’. This band is actually a doughnut-shaped torus that we see from the side, hiding the nebula’s central star – the ancient core of a Sun-like star that energises the nebula and causes it to glow. The dusty doughnut may be responsible for the nebula’s insectoid shape by preventing gas from flowing outward from the star equally in all directions.
[Image description: A planetary nebula called NGC 6302 or the Butterfly Nebula. A dark dust lane runs through the centre of the nebula and two broad clouds emerge from either side of the dust lane like the outstretched wings of a butterfly. The nebula appears cream coloured and most opaque near the centre, then becomes reddish with purple streaks and more translucent out toward the wings of the nebula. There are hundreds of background stars in the image, many of which are visible through the nebula.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Kastner, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); CC BY 4.0
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) in the constellation Aquarius. This is a 26 minute exposure (26 x 1 minute) at ISO 3200, low on the horizon for me, so image quality is not that good, was toward the end of the night and never attempted to image it before.
Salut à tous,
192h au cœur d'un rémanent de supernova : on parle des restes d'une étoile géante, bien plus massive que notre soleil, dont la vie s'achève de manière cataclysmique en une explosion de matière dont on voit ici les restes. Cette explosion, ou plutôt effondrement, appelé supernova fait partie des évènements les plus spectaculaires de l'univers.
Au sein de ce rémanent de supernova (appelé SNR pour SuperNova Remanent), des structures particulières se forment à partir des gaz d'hydrogène (en rouge) et d'oxygène (en bleu), ces structures ont leur propre dénomination et cette image se concentre sur SH2-96 et SH2-94, mais il ne s'agit la que d'une fraction de ce rémanent. Pour prendre la mesure complète de cet objet, voici une image du rémanent complet réalisé par @Yann Saintyhttps://www.astrobin.com/fzzmhu/ notre champ, n'étant que la partie en haut à droite de son image !
Mais SH2-96-94 n'était à la base, pas la cible de ce projet, nous avions contacté @Marcel Drechsler pour lui proposer de réaliser une image du catalogue StDr, notre choix s'était porté sur StDr132 (planetarynebulae.net/EN/page_np.php?id=1009) qui se trouve pile aux coordonnées ci :
Voyant l'environnement dans lequel se situait cet objet, le signal de StDr au regard du signal des deux objets Sharpless nous n'avons pu résister à la tentation de le photographier ce champ à 750mm de focale avec un capteur APS-C, il nous aura fallu 4 tuiles de 32h de H et 16h de O chacune pour photographier ces deux objets SH2
Le champ est d'une richesse incroyable, les gaz s’entremêlent en de chaotiques filaments témoins de la puissance du phénomène qui les ont fait naître. En se promenant dans l'image en haute résolution vous apercevrez peut être quelques petites galaxies en arrière plan
Nous ne pouvons toutefois pas publier cette image sans mentionner de nouveau Yann qui nous aura été d'une aide précieuse pour la réalisation de celle ci : tant du point de vue des conseils pour améliorer le rendu de l'image que pour la résolution d'un problème que nous avons rencontré lors de la réalisation de celle-ci : la colorisation des étoiles. Notre couche RVB ayant eu un problème, nous avons pu utiliser celle de Yann et achever complètement ce champ ! Un grand merci à toi !
N'hesitez pas encore une fois à parcourir la version détaillée de l'image, de chouettes choses s'y cachent et nous avons eu à coeur de les mettre en relief ! Nous espérons que cette image vous plaira autant qu'à nous ! A très bientôt pour de nouvelles images !
Mickael & Julien
Northern France Remote
M27 - the Dumbbell nebula (1360 light years away)
Full field aps-c processing
bad weather until 2 a.m., but it was a lovely evening with friends at the observatory, we are grateful for the hospitality! :)
@ VIII° Star Party del Monferrato (Odalengo piccolo)
The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years.
This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes.
Celestron 11 XLT mirror block mod.
Canon / CentralDS EOS Astro 50D
Starizona Reducer corrector f/7.5
13x340" ISO3200 bin 1x1
13x240" ISO2500 bin 1x1
Total Integr: 2.1
NGC6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula)
A bright planetary nebula in the constellation Draco. The first planetary nebula in my collection, and also my first image on the 10" refractor at Volkssternwarte München.
Imaged on 2021-10-31
Telescope: 10" Schaer refractor (f/16, prime focus) @ Volkssternwarte München
Camera: Samsung NX30 (unmodified)
Acquisition: 60x20 s, ISO 1600, 20 darks, no flats
Tracking: equatorial mount, unguided RA tracking
Stacking: Fitswork
Post-processing: Fitswork (wavelets, sharpening), Aurora HDR (stretching), Photoshop (cosmetics, processing artifact removal)
Some new data for this nebula went public yesterday, and... it's different. The observations were almost all narrowband emission lines, and there were a lot of them. Five visible, four near-infrared, two wideband near-infrared. For this image I used only the visible filters. It turned out quite colorful, and quite unlike all the Hubble imagery that came before it. [O III] really wants to dominate the image, but I toned it down quite a bit with a technique I only use rarely, which is to group filters by the similarity the reveal within the object rather than trying to merge all filters into a single image.
If you would like to see the old image of this nebula, check here: flic.kr/p/fC7DwR
I was interested to see if any more structures were revealed especially in the near-infrared data, like the double rings (it's questionable they are really rings), but it's not nearly as apparent in these data as it was back in the old NICMOS data. The double rings, if that's what they are, are most pronounced in F212N, which is a molecular hydrogen filter. None of the filters for this image reveal quite the same structure that the F212N filter did.
The nebula expanded quite a bit in the two decades since the previous HST observations were taken. In terms of this image, the maximum movement amounted to around 8 pixels at WFC3/UVIS resolution (100% zoom of this image). All of the stars moved around, too. The new image is slightly higher resolution, but not much.
Explaining the processing further, I took the F673N, F487N, & F343N filters to make a 3-color image. I chose these because none of them was overwhelmingly brighter in any area than the other, but they all do still reveal delicate color separation. Next, I combined the F656N and F502N filters into a 2-color image. The signal for these two filters was much more intense, and they worked nicely together to reveal the fainter structures of the nebula, especially those faint shells emanating gently outward from the nebula in nearly circular formation. The 2-color combination is not especially colorful though, so I used it as a luminosity layer. Stars are always funky in narrowband imagery, so I removed all the stars from the 3-color image, leaving the 2-color luminosity layer to show them.
Data from the following proposal were used to create this image:
Luminosity:
WFC3/UVIS F656N + WFC3/UVIS F502N
Color:
Red: WFC3/UVIS F673N
Green: WFC3/UVIS F487N
Blue: WFC3/UVIS F343N
North is up.
Nebulosa planetaria - somma di 20 scatti da 5 minuti a 800 ISO. Strumenti: Canon Eos 350D mod.; Schmidt-Newton Meade 203, focale 812, 7 dark, 25 flat. Località: Spinello(Fc). Data: 17/09/2009
This Hubble Space Telescope image captures the beauty of the moth-like planetary nebula NGC 2899. This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 22 000 degree Celsius white dwarf at the center. In fact, there may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus – looking like a half-eaten donut. It has a forest of gaseous “pillars” that point back to the source of radiation and stellar winds. The colours are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies approximately 4,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Vela.
[Image description: The planetary nebula NGC 2899 is shaped like a single macaroni noodle, with its edges pointed up, but its edge-on central torus is semi-transparent in the middle. The top and bottom edges are thick and orange. The center is semi-transparent blue and green. The wider central region looks roughly like a moth, also filled with semi-transparent blue and green. There are two pinpoint-like white stars with diffraction spikes toward the center. Immediately below them, slightly toward the right, is a smaller blue orb, a central star. The next layer of gas and dust is whiter, with some thicker pillars that look like they are rising up at bottom center. The colour fades into reds and purples, and then to orange ]
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI; CC BY 4.0
This planetary nebula has a very unusual shape.
The central star is moving, and this causes the ejected material to pile up in one direction. This part is brighter.
It is interesting to compare the hydrogen to the sulfur exposures.
I have included both so that you can use the arrow keys to move between them.
The planetary nebula is interacting with the interstellar medium. Long exposures show faint details of the planetary nebula.
The rest of the circle at the lower left as well as extra material below this are also barely visible.
Press “L” to see large.
Imaged from Deep Sky West - Rowe New Mexico, using RCOS 14.5” Ritchey–Chrétien telescope f/9. 3340 mm focal length.
H 12.5 hours exposure.
Transparency and Seeing very good to excellent.
November-December 2017 Processed in Pixinsight, and Lightroom, Photoshop
NGC7293 - The Helix nebula - is a large planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius. This object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae at a distance of about 700 light-years. The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the "Eye of God"
Details
M: Avalon Linear Fast Reverse
T: Takahashi FSQ85 0.73x
C: Atik 460EXM with 3nm Ha filter and Baader RGB
The RGB has kindly been donated by a friend while I acquire my own colour data.
12x1800s Ha
10x1800s Ha bin 2x2