Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  NGC 40
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NGC 40 - 2017, Gary Imm
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NGC 40 - 2017

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 40 - 2017, Gary Imm
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 40 - 2017

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Description

This object is a small, 0.6 minute planetary nebula located 3500 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus. It is Caldwell #2, which indicates that it lies far north at +72 degrees declination. This is one of those objects which in my opinion does not quite resemble its nickname, as it appears a bit differently in an image than it does in the eyepiece. The interesting shape is believed to be due to the complex dynamics of gas being expelled from a fast orbiting central double star. I find the red hydrogen tails, located at each end of the object beyond the loop with one tail much longer than the other, to be fascinating but I haven't been able to find any information explaining the reason for this structure. The central source star is clearly visible.

This was a tough object to process. In the end, the best details were obtained by using a H-S-O narrowband color palette. The object is guarded on either side by two orange hued 9-magnitude stars, one of them a nice double.

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NGC 40 - 2017, Gary Imm

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All of My PN Images (264)