NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula (Doug Summers)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Draco (Dra) · Contains: Cat's Eye Nebula · NGC 6543 · NGC 6552

NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula, Doug Summers

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula

The Cat's Eye nebula lies 3300 light-years distant in the constellation Draco the dragon. The estimated age is 1000 years old.   Having a very complex structure, only part of the core structure is visible in this image.

This is pushing the RASA11 about as far as it can go.   Planetary nebula are typically very small (this one has a core that is 24x48 arcsecs).   I captured 45 sec frames for the outer nebula, and tried a variety of other durations for the inner core region (10 secs, 5 secs, 1 sec, 0.5 secs). In the end, only the 0.5 sec frames were able to show any structure at all; all the other durations were blown out.

This is a very difficult object to process; probably the most difficult one I've attempted.   The dynamic range is extreme. I tried HDR composition and preview substitution separately to combine the different durations, but without success.   In the end (after registering to a common frame), I was forced to clone stamp the 0.5 sec integration (581 frames) into the 45 sec integration (379 frames), and then smooth the edges to get this to work.   Not my preference, but it is what it is. Note that the acquisition input form only allows whole numbers for integration time, so I divided the number of frames by 2 and used 1 sec.   Total integration time is correct.

Let's call this image "artsy", as using clonestamp isn't exactly kosher.   I just couldn't find any other acceptable way to blend the two HDR exposure durations in PixInsight.

Original
Final
B

B

Description: Curves adjustment to stars to make them less soft.

Uploaded: ...

The OSC Club (One Shot Camera)
Celestron RASA

NGC Objects
Planetary Nebulae
z-Chiricahua Astronomy Complex

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	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7167935
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula

NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

In these collections

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula

NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

In these collections

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?

Delete this revision?

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