Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  HD5005  ·  IC 1590  ·  LBN 615  ·  LBN 616  ·  NGC 281  ·  Sh2-184
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NGC 281 SHO, Ron Stanley
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NGC 281 SHO

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NGC 281 SHO, Ron Stanley
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NGC 281 SHO

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Description

The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) is a large emission nebula appearing near the orange giant Schedar in the constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula lies approximately 9,200 light years away and occupies 35 arcminutes of the apparent sky. It is also catalogued as IC 11 and Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184). It was named the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to Pac-Man, the character in the popular 1980s maze video game. In optical images, a dark dust lane forms the Pac-Man’s mouth.
NGC 281 is associated with IC 1590 (Collinder 8), a young open cluster with an estimated age of 3.5 million years.  The cluster has an apparent magnitude of 7.4. It contains 279 stars of magnitude 17 or brighter, including the multiple star system responsible for ionizing the gas in the nebula and making it glow.

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    NGC 281 SHO, Ron Stanley
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NGC 281 SHO, Ron Stanley