NGC 1514 (Gary Imm)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Taurus (Tau) · Contains: NGC 1514 · PGC 1916109 · PK165-15.1

NGC 1514

This is the Crystal Ball Nebula, located about 2000 light years away in the constellation of Taurus at a declination of +31 degrees. This PN spans over 3 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 2 light years.

The bright 9th magnitude progenitor star is clearly visible. For me, the beauty of this object lies in the three dimensional look of the various gas sphere layers which were ejected from the dying star over time. I find the geometric patterns of the dark void patterns to be fascinating.

For a non-Messier object, I was surprised at the brightness of this nebula. I understand now how the appearance of this specific object caused the great William Herschel in 1790 to rethink the accepted idea at the time that all nebulae were simply stars that were too distant to resolve, laying the groundwork for our current understanding of these nebulae. His observation reads in part,

"A most singular phenomenon . . . The star is perfectly in the centre, and the atmosphere is so diluted, faint, and equal throughout, that there can be no surmise of its consisting of stars, nor can there be a doubt of the evident connection between the atmosphere and the star. Another star not much less in brightness, and in the same field with the above, was perfectly free from any such appearance."

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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.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3959029
PixInsight job	GHNLBUSMSAMKYI7LW7Y8QZA35Q573OGJ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	04h09m17s.690
RA (top/left)	04h09m59s.427
RA (top/right)	04h08m30s.782
RA (bottom/right)	04h08m34s.842
RA (bottom/left)	04h10m03s.296

Dec (center)	+30°46′33″.42
Dec (top/left)	+30°53′28″.54
Dec (top/right)	+30°52′11″.28
Dec (bottom/right)	+30°39′37″.31
Dec (bottom/left)	+30°40′54″.19

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