The Pacman Nebula, NGC 281 or IC 11, Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184) (Bob Stevenson)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas) · Contains: HD236521 · HD236526 · HD236589 · HD4266 · HD4647 · HD5005 · HD5032 · IC 1590 · LBN 615 · LBN 616 · LBN 621 · NGC 281 · Sh2-184

Powered byPixInsight

The Pacman Nebula, NGC 281 or IC 11, Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184)

Powered byPixInsight

The Pacman Nebula, NGC 281 or IC 11, Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184)

The Pacman Nebula is a large nebula at a distance of roughly 9200 light years. It was named after the video game character from the 1980s. As a teenager I played many hours of Pacman on my Commodore 64 so I consider myself an expert.

It is 48 light years across and contains great Bok globules. Bok globules are small, dense dark nebulae packed with material from which new stars are formed. The dark dust lane stretching across the nebula make this a very popular target for astrophotographers.

There are some fine details within the nebula which disappear if over-processed - I had to do this one a few times to get a version that I liked.

Imaged with N.I.N.A.
Canadian Astrophotography
IOptron CEM
ZWO ASI2600MM Pro

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7010122
PixInsight job	S6VZWWML9QJSTB8FJI5KE6YD4EWY38SF
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h52m16s.34
RA (top/left)	00h46m01s.38
RA (top/right)	00h59m31s.38
RA (bottom/right)	00h58m46s.46
RA (bottom/left)	00h44m49s.26

Dec (center)	+56°35′57″.0
Dec (top/left)	+55°51′01″.1
Dec (top/right)	+56°02′45″.2
Dec (bottom/right)	+57°19′41″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	+57°07′27″.7

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The Pacman Nebula, NGC 281 or IC 11, Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184)

The Pacman Nebula, NGC 281 or IC 11, Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The Pacman Nebula, NGC 281 or IC 11, Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184)

The Pacman Nebula, NGC 281 or IC 11, Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information