NGC 281 - The Pacman Nebula
Photo by Arun Hegde
Scope / Lens
TS-Optics 200mm/8" ONTC f/4 Newtonian (carbon tube)
Camera
ZWO ASI294MM Pro
Exposure
Frames:Chroma Blue 31 mm: 30x60"(30') -10°C bin 2x2
Chroma Green 31 mm: 30x60"(30') -10°C bin 2x2
Chroma H-alpha 5nm Bandpass 31 mm: 105x300"(8h 45') -10°C bin 2x2
Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 31 mm: 72x300"(6h) -10°C bin 2x2
Chroma Red 31 mm: 30x60"(30') -10°C bin 2x2
Chroma SII 3nm Bandpass 31 mm: 96x300"(8h) -10°C bin 2x2
Integration: 24h 15'
Description
This is NGC 281, or the Pacman Nebula. Of note in this nebula are several "Bok globules" - small dark nebulae containing gas and dust where stars are being formed. This nebula is roughly 20 x 30 arc minutes, or about the size of a full moon.The nebula has obvious similarities to the Pacman arcade or video game character - this was one of my favorite games to play in high school on a small 8 bit, 48 KB (yes, that's kilo bytes, not mega or giga!) computer my parents bought for me.
This is a narrow band image rendered in the straight Hubble palette - hydrogen is mapped to green, sulfur to red, and oxygen emissions to blue.
ID: 1488