Pacman Nebula, NGC281

Oct 2021

Imaging: TS80 apo, ZWO ASI533 (100 gain, 0C), L-Enhance
Subs: 161x180s (8h), darks, flats, and darkflats
Software: NINA, Phd2, PixInsight

(Additional notes below)

Gallery

Notes

The Pacman Nebula is a bright emission nebula in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. For any of us 80s kids, it resembles a favorite video game character of that era. (The resemblance is stronger in a wide frame shot where it looks like it is about to eat a bright star just outside this image.) According to Wikipedia, it lies about 9200 LY from us.

This was October challenge target for my astronomy forum. The image I submitted to that was from only two nights of imaging and then it was bad (imaging) weather for the rest of October. The version you are seeing here was captured over a total of 5 nights in October and November. The color palette here is HOO (red for Ha and green/blue for OIII gases respectively).