The
California Nebula (
NGC 1499/
Sh2-220) is an
emission nebula located in the constellation
Perseus. Its name comes from its resemblance to the outline of the
US State of
California in long exposure photographs. It is almost 2.5° long on the sky and, because of its very low
surface brightness, it is extremely difficult to observe visually. It can be observed with a
Hα filter (isolates the H
α line at 656 nm) or H
β filter (isolates the H
β line at 486 nm) in a rich-field
telescope under dark skies.
[1] It lies at a distance of about 1,000
light years from
Earth. Its fluorescence is due to excitation of the H
β line in the nebula by the nearby prodigiously energetic O7 star,
Xi Persei (also known as
Menkib).
[2] - wikipedia
NGC 1499 was one of the very first things i shot when I got my first imaging telescope. I originally shot it with a OSC and an Optolong Enhance filter. I always wanted to come back and play around with a SHO version of it... .so here it is....
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