NGC246 Skull Nebula (Josh)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Cetus (Cet) · Contains: HD4109 · HD4122 · HD4145 · HD4272 · HD4395 · HD4771 · NGC 246 · NGC 255

Powered byPixInsight

NGC246 Skull Nebula

Powered byPixInsight

NGC246 Skull Nebula

This small Planetary Planetary Nebula lies approximately 1,600ly distant in the constellation of Cetus. Like all planetary nebulas, this provides a glimpse at the potential future for our own star once it runs out of enough mass to keep the outer layers gravitationally bound. At this point the star begins to shed its outer layers that continue to expand in a giant bubble like structure.

This planetary nebula is right at the edge of what I consider feasible with my current line up of equipment. I used all the processing tricks I know to make the most out of this tiny target, including application of 2x Drizzle during stacking and careful use of deconvolution. That being said I am very surprised at how much of the inner structure I was able to resolve, including splitting the central "Binary" star system.

I say "binary", but it is technically a hierarchical ternary star system. The main central star, HIP 3678 A, is a White dwarf that can be seen in my image to be orbited by HIP 3678 B, a K-type, or "orange" dwarf. Not resolved in my image is the third member of this star system, HIP 3678 C, which is a tiny M-type red dwarf orbiting close to the central star.

Please enjoy, and Clear Skies!

Southern Hemisphere Astro

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
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	8626453
PixInsight job	M8DRVUPRKHLTW0GP560O409O3F7T01XC
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h46m59s.999
RA (top/left)	00h43m12s.600
RA (top/right)	00h50m52s.451
RA (bottom/right)	00h50m45s.810
RA (bottom/left)	00h43m07s.586

Dec (center)	-11°52′33″.64
Dec (top/left)	-12°31′39″.20
Dec (top/right)	-12°29′41″.36
Dec (bottom/right)	-11°12′57″.49
Dec (bottom/left)	-11°15′14″.44

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC246 Skull Nebula

NGC246 Skull Nebula

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC246 Skull Nebula

NGC246 Skull Nebula

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information