Skull Nebula (Planetary Nebula NGC 246)

[Coolhandjo]

I Noticed that this Nebulas was in perfect postion for imaging the other night. Due to Full Moon I used Narrow Band Filters only to capture this image.

This image is Ha 40min, Oiii 40min, & Sii 40min with 8inch Newt and Atik 314L+

The Nebula is faint at Mag 11.8, and is 4.1 Arc Min

The Nebula surrounds a dying star some 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Cetus.

The star you can see at the centre of the image seems egg shaped, but its actually a binary (two stars). This binary is becoming a dense, hot white dwarf (dying).

This is only the second Planetary Nebula I have imaged and I find them fascinating, but difficult.

Comments Welcomed.

[Beyond_Vision]

An unusual looking target and one I haven't seen before. Thanks for sharing it

Regards

Kevin

[adamsp123]

Nice one Paul, like Kevin I have not seen this one before.

[callisto]

Very nice pic, Thanks

[Coolhandjo]

Thanks all - it is a very unusual object that,s for sure!

[Shibby]

Impressive capture of a small nebula! (ironically 246 arc seconds )

[brantuk]

That's refreshingly different - and a nice capture too

[Sam]

Very nice image of a seldom imaged object. Well done!

[daz]

Nicely done.

I saw this (just) visually at Kelling in 2009 in a 20" dob!

[DrNeb]

beautiful.. almost makes me want to sell my car to pay for some imaging equipment.

[Whippy]

That's a cracking effort, it's very low down here in the UK but I guess you get it nice and high where you are .

Tony..

[Tim]

That looks an interesting one, nicely done. Never heard of it either, but planetaries are my favourites

if you can, get a really long Ha exposure on it, say 40 mins or 60 mins, and same in Oiii if possible. Quite often these nebulae have very faint outer rings that you just dont see in standard images. I'd be keen to know

Thanks for sharing.

Tim

[Coolhandjo]

Thanks for comments - yes it was sitting pretty high when I imaged it! And I agree re more Ha and Oiii - would be worth it. Might give it a try tonight!