NGC 2261 - Hubble's Variable Nebula (Gary Imm)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Monoceros (Mon) · Contains: Hubble's variable neb · NGC 2261

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NGC 2261 - Hubble's Variable Nebula

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NGC 2261 - Hubble's Variable Nebula

This object is a variable reflection nebula located 2500 light years away in the constellation of Monoceros. The nebula, one light-year across, is a fan-shaped cloud of gas and dust which is illuminated by a 10th magnitude star (R Monocerotis) on the left side of the nebula.

This object is unique because its light pattern changes with time. Dense concentrations of dust near the star cast shadows out into the nebula. As the dust moves the shadows change, giving rise to the brightness variations first observed by Dr. Edwin Hubble.

This object is sometimes compared to a comet, but it looks much prettier than that to me. The illuminated bright nebulosity varies in color from purple at the top to blue in the middle to brown at the bottom. I also like the sharp edges at the left side of the nebula and how the object looks like it is on fire, as if the bright star is burning and a wind is blowing the resulting smoke to the right and diffusing it.

I find it very curious that this nebula is so asymmetric. Scientists speculate that a symmetrical counterpart of this fan-shaped nebula exists, but that we cannot see it because it is heavily obscured from our view by dust. It doesn't appear that way to me and I can't really make sense of this unique shape.

The refractors!
Cloudy Nights
ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M

Caldwell Catalog (Complete*)
Cometary Nebulae
Reflection Nebulae
Variable Nebulae
YSOs (Young Star Objects)

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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.
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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	2627978
PixInsight job	9XUUS79J6KPLEFF0HIDN9GFTBLES8QS8
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	06h39m09s.667
RA (top/left)	06h39m45s.893
RA (top/right)	06h39m45s.648
RA (bottom/right)	06h38m33s.415
RA (bottom/left)	06h38m33s.732

Dec (center)	+08°45′01″.14
Dec (top/left)	+08°32′58″.68
Dec (top/right)	+08°57′06″.47
Dec (bottom/right)	+08°57′03″.14
Dec (bottom/left)	+08°32′55″.39

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NGC 2261 - Hubble's Variable Nebula

NGC 2261 - Hubble's Variable Nebula

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NGC 2261 - Hubble's Variable Nebula

NGC 2261 - Hubble's Variable Nebula

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