Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Camelopardalis (Cam)  ·  Contains:  NGC 1501  ·  PK144+06.1
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NGC 1501 - The Oyster Nebula, Eddie Bagwell
NGC 1501 - The Oyster Nebula, Eddie Bagwell

NGC 1501 - The Oyster Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 1501 - The Oyster Nebula, Eddie Bagwell
NGC 1501 - The Oyster Nebula, Eddie Bagwell

NGC 1501 - The Oyster Nebula

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Description

-  The Oyster Nebula (NGC 1501) is a Planetary Nebula located in the northern constellation Camelopardalis. The nebula was created by an extremely hot, rapidly pulsating central star in a very late stage of its life. Appearing as a bright orange dot in the center of the glowing cloud of dust and gas, the star looks like a pearl in a large celestial oyster, giving the nebula its name.

The Oyster Nebula lies at an estimated distance of 4,240 light years. It has an angular size of 0.863 arcminutes and an apparent magnitude of 13.0.

-  It was discovered by the German-born British astronomer William Herschel on November 3, 1787.

-  Once described as “bearing a resemblance to the convolutions of the brain” by American astronomer Francis G. Pease, the structure of NGC 1501 is characterized by a bubbly appearance and moderately elliptical shape. The ellipsoid is distorted by a pair of large bipolar lobes along the major and intermediate axes, with many smaller bumps on the whole surface.

-  The progenitor star is unusual in that it varies in brightness, which is something not commonly found in planetary nebulae.

-  Even though it ejected its outer layers a long time ago, the star is still very hot and luminous, and appears to be pulsating.

Originally, I was going to capture 5-minute subs, then decided at the last minute to go with 3-minute subs because the PN was so bright. Now I think 90 second subs would have been better. It still turned out pretty good as I was delicate with the processing of the Nebula. Shows up really well in both O3 and Ha subs.

Be sure to check out the mouse-over to view a close-up of the "convolutions of the brain."

Thanks, Eddie

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