While preparing a list of objects to photograph in Hakos (Namibia) with the rented 16" SynTec telescope, I was primarily searching for planetary nebulae. However, somewhat accidentally, I stumbled upon a beautiful, frayed yellow blob marked as IC 2220 in the catalog.I was slightly surprised by its yellow color because what kind of gas would emit yellow light in such an object?

A quick check on the internet revealed that I was dealing with a reflection nebula! IC 2220 was only discovered in 1900 by the American astronomer DeLisle Stewart. You can find it in the constellation Carina, in the vicinity of another beautiful object, the open cluster NGC 2516 (more towards the western part of the Carina constellation, next to the Flying Fish).By the way, this gave me the idea for a frame with the TS APO 65Q telescope and the ASI 294MC camera.

But what about the nebula itself? Although it seemed far from my beloved planetary nebulae, the more I searched for information about it, the more convinced I became that I wanted to have this object in my collection IC 2220 is commonly known as the Toby Jug Nebula. It is located 1200 light-years away from Earth and is a cloud of gases and dust illuminated from within by a red giant star - HR3126, five times larger than our Sun and nearing the end of its life. Stars with smaller mass, like our Sun, reach this stage when they start depleting their fuel reserves and expand to large sizes before shedding layers of gas, forming a planetary nebula. However, here it's different - this star is only about 50 million years old. As it nears the end of its existence, it ejects a portion of its mass into the surrounding space, forming a cloud of gas and dust as the matter cools. This stage in a star's life is relatively short, which is why objects of this type are rarely encountered.It is believed that the red giant named HR3126 is partially responsible for the unusual loop-like shape of the nebula. Astronomers suggest that the red giant once had a companion star, which was torn apart and transformed into a dense disk of matter orbiting the red giant. This tearing apart of the companion star could have caused the formation of the loop-like structure. As HR3126 loses some of its mass, it shapes a cloud of gas and dust that contains elements such as carbon and simple molecules resistant to high temperatures (the star itself has a temperature of 3089 K), such as titanium dioxide and calcium oxide - quite characteristic of spectral type M0III stars. Furthermore, detailed infrared studies in this case indicate that silicon dioxide is most likely the primary light-scattering component.

So, in addition to capturing an image using the lucky imaging technique, it was also necessary to collect the spectrum of this star. Despite limited experience in the spectroscopic analysis of stars, it seems that I have managed to reasonably match the spectrum to that of an M0III-type star. Perhaps some deviations are due to measurement imperfections or some of the emission is blocked by the nebula's dust?