Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  HD5005  ·  IC 1590  ·  LBN 615  ·  LBN 616  ·  NGC 281  ·  Sh2-184
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NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula with the L-eXtreme, Taman
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NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula with the L-eXtreme

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula with the L-eXtreme, Taman
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula with the L-eXtreme

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Description

The Pacman Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It gets its name from the shape of the "Pacman" character in the 1980's computer game. A dark dust lane almost cuts the nebula in half, adding to the illusion of the Pacman's "mouth".

The close double star at the centre of the image is actually a multiple system with 4 companions, seperated between 1.4 and 15.7 seconds of arc. This star is B 1 (Burnham 1) or HD 5005. With the blurring from the 6 minute subs I could only split the furthest member of the group.  The small dark blobs of denser gas and dust are known as Bok Globules, which are associated with star formation.

I used the ForaxX "power of inverted pixels" method at https://thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowband-combinations-with-pixelmath/ to combine the Ha and Oiii. This also generates a synthetic green channel. I'll be using this again as it produced a nice result.

This was my second image of the night with the Optolong L-eXtreme  and less than 4 hours of exposure time. Even with the complicated processing, I'm really pleased with this filter!

Clear skies!

Tony.

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