This object is a planetary nebula located 5000 light years away in the constellation of Gemini at a declination of +29 degrees. This magnitude 12.8 PN spans over 2 arc-minutes to the outer lobes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 3.2 light years. PN usually span about 1 light year – this object is one of the largest known PNs.

The central bright region is a torus of illuminated dusk surrounding has the central star, with a dark lane of cleared out material running along the bi-polar jet axis. In an eyepiece, this object looks like two bright “halves” separated by a dark area. This appearance led to this object having two entries in the New General Catalogue NGC 2371 & NGC 2372.

The nebulas 14.8 magnitude blue central star is easily visible. Far out from the central star, beyond the bright inner region, are two faint filamentary features, one on each side. These features likely represent the outer shells of the bi-lobed structure and are illuminated by the ultraviolet light that sneaks out through the dark dust lane along the bi-polar axis.

Looking closely at my image, two small bright white “arrowheads” are visible on opposite sides of the central star, pointing outward. These are likely to be cool, dense knots of gas ejected from the central star. These knots are called "FLIERS," which stand for Fast Low-Ionization Emission Regions. The FLIERS are easier to see in the Hubble and Spitzer images of the mouseover, colored pink and red respectively. My Astrobin catalog of FLIERS is here.

It is interesting that the direction of these FLIERS is not aligned with the bi-polar axis. Scientists believe that is because the bi-polar jets are changing direction over time, but clearly there is a long way to go before objects like this one are fully understood.