I shot this target a few years back and was not that happy with the result, I was plagued with guiding issues which really made processing challenging. This attempt has more broadband light in an effort to get more stars within the nebula.
This large, beautiful planetary nebula can be found in the constellation Fornax. Its common name, “The Robin’s Egg Nebula” describes the object perfectly. It looks like a Robins egg floating in space. NGC 1360 is a typical evolved planetary nebula. The term
evolved means “aging”, and the planetary nebula does not contain any apparent shell morphology. Contrasting this, if you compare this with another planetary nebula, i.e., “The Skull Nebula” you will find defined, well-marked boundaries and symmetry present in younger Planetary Nebula (PN). NGC 1360 is fairly diffuse and shows areas interacting with the interstellar medium.
The interesting colouring is caused by the excitation of oxygen from its hot central star. The central star is known to be a binary star system consisting of two evolved white dwarf stars.
Reddish jet-like glows along the longer axis are believed to have been ejected from the original star before its final collapse. In time, everything will fade, with just the white dwarf in the centre remaining. It will take several billion years to finally cool off.
Instruments:- Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
- Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
- Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
- Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
- Pixel size: 9.00 um
- Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Exposure Details:- Lum 52 X 900
- Red 57 X 450
- Green 40 X 450
- Blue 55 X 450
- OIII 35 X 1800
- Ha 20 X 1800
Total Exposure: 59.5 hours
Thanks for looking
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