NGC 2392

Located in Gemini about 5000 light years distant, NGC 2392 is a planetary nebula and represents the remains of a dying star. Formed about 10000 years ago after it exhausted its core hydrogen, the star started to cool and massively expand, forming a red giant. During this process, the cooler outer layers of the star were ejected leaving behind a hot core.  The interaction between the radiation of the hot core and the ejection processes creates filament structures. Eventually, the star will become a white dwarf.  

The object has a very small apparent size, so to maximise detail, I decided to discard any sub-frames with poor seeing.  Although some detail is revealed, I was a bit disappointed with the result.   On reflection, since the core is relatively bright, I think that a lucky imaging approach with the core, combined with a traditional approach for the outer layers, would have yielded a more optimum result.

The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents about 10 hours integration time.