Bubble Nebula and M52

Bubble and M52
All Images Copyright Steve Cannistra

Please click here for a medium-size view (50%).


Characteristics:
Magnitude:  about 7.0
Distance: 11,000 light years
RA: 23h 20m 42s
Dec: 61 degrees 12' 00"
Position Angle: +273 degrees

Description:
The Bubble Nebula is one of only a few "bubbles" identified in the night sky, and it forms a photogenic partner with the open cluster M52, seen in the lower left.  It is an unusual planetary nebula named for the surrounding bubble that is seen in the upper right portion of the photograph above, caused by gas ejected from a massive central star.  The rate of ejected gas is so brisk that it "runs into" the wall of the surrounding nebula, thus creating a boundary of higher density gas that forms the outer shell of the bubble.  More information about this process may be found here.

Photographic Details:
Dates of image acquistion:  September 19, 20, and 21, 2020
Scope:  Takahashi FSQ106 at f5 on the Takahashi NJP Mount
Autoguider:  SBIG ST-402 with 60mm guidescope, focal length 227mm
Camera:  SX814 with Starlight Xpress 5 position USB filter wheel
Filters:  Baader Ha, Baader RGB filters
Exposures:  Total exposure 21 hours
Post-processing:  Calibrated, aligned and stacked in Maxim, followed by DDP in ImagesPlus (IP).  Further processing in Photoshop CS (16 bit format)



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