Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  IC 1590  ·  LBN 615  ·  LBN 616  ·  LBN 621  ·  NGC 281  ·  Sh2-184
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NGC 281, Jeff Ridder
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NGC 281

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 281, Jeff Ridder
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 281

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Description

Raise your hand if you remember playing the ORIGINAL Pac-Man in an arcade, possibly after seeing "The Empire Strikes Back" for the fourth time. Well, here's everybody's dot-munching, ghost-chasing little buddy in nebula form. 

NGC 281, more commonly known as the Pacman Nebula, is a bright emission nebula in Cassiopeia, part of the Milky Way's Perseus spiral arm. It is 9500 light years away from the nearest arcade on Earth. A young open cluster, IC 1590, is visible in the center and is home to more than 279 stars that illuminate the gases around it, forming the Pacman shape.

This image contains about 15 hours of narrowband exposure time to capture the details of the emission nebula. I added another hour of wideband exposures to capture the natural color of the stars.

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NGC 281, Jeff Ridder