NGC-281 (Pacman Nebula) SHO

For your viewing pleasure, may I present, NGC 281 also known as the Pacman Nebula. This nickname comes from its appearance that seems to resemble the character from an early video game called…Pacman! Near the center of the nebula (just off to the left) is an open star cluster called IC 1590. That middle bright “blob” is actually a multi star system within the cluster. The cluster is quite stunning and beautiful. These cluster stars were born out of the Pacman’s hydrogen, and now cause it to glow.
The high-mass stars of this cluster drive many aspects of the Pacman’s environment through powerful winds flowing from their surfaces and intense radiation that heats surrounding gas, “boiling it away” into space. This process results in the formation of large columns of gas and dust, as seen on the left side of the image and most prominently along the bottom right. These structures likely contain newly forming stars.
The Pacman is about 9,500 light years away and covers a little more sky than the full Moon. Amazing! This version shows some nice detail because of the length of time and because of the filters that I used that allow only a few wavelengths of light through from sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen. These are then mapped to red, green and blue during processing giving it the distinct blue, orange, gold color.

Sessions

Total Integration Time:

Sept. 27, 2024 - 122 * 180.0 seconds
IDAS NBS (SII/OIII)
Sept. 26, 2024 - 120 * 180.0 seconds
Optolong L-eXtreme Filter (Ha/OIII)
Sept. 28, 2024 - 85 * 180.0 seconds
IDAS NB3 (SII/OIII)
Oct. 7, 2024 - 95 * 180.0 seconds
Optolong L-eXtreme (HA/OIII)

Catalogues

New General Catalogue

Targets

NGC281

Gear

Telescope: Celestron C6-A
Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Mount: iOptron CEM26