Planetary Nebulae Images (Gallery 1)

The image above is of NGC6302 in Scorpius. It also takes the name of 'The Bug Nebula'. The coordinates of this nebula are R.A. 17h 13m 44s, Dec. -37d 06m, placing it quite low in the sky for Northern Hemisphere observers, but still quite attainable. The size of this object  is approximately 83 x 24 arc-seconds (1.38 x 0.4 arc-minutes). Steve Gottlieb reports that in a 13" telescope, "the planetary is bright, fairly small, elongated e-w, with very high surface brightness." The computed surface brightness is 9.02 (magnitudes per square arc-minute) and the estimated visual magnitude varies (in the literature) from 9.6 to 12.80. In my opinion, the visual magnitude lies closer to 10 than to 12. Steve's report continues...."Subtle structure, but the western extension is notably longer, brighter, and cut by a dark lane.  The eastern extension bends slightly north just east of center." It is a type 6 planetary, meaning that it is 'Anomalous'. Sure looks like a 'bug' to me!      

This sketch, contributed by Daniel Restemeier of Germany is a really great representation of M57 and its surrounding field. With just a 10" Dobsonian! Daniel also has a sketch showing Pease 1 in M15.

This composite image of eleven NGC Planetary Nebulae and one Emission Nebula is indeed a work of art and science. The images were all taken with CCD cameras mounted on a 31cm (12") f/5 Newtonian Reflector by Kunihiko Okano in Japan. I urge you to visit his home page and view all the great images he has placed on the Internet, which include a great variety of astronomical objects, and scenes found here on Earth. In this composite image, the 12 objects are, starting from left top to bottom, are:  

The object NGC7635 in Cassiopeia is classified as an Emission Nebula, and is known by its common name, The Bubble Nebula. It is located about 1/2 degree SW of M52 (Messier 52).
The data on these images is as follows:

31cm (12") f/5 Newtonian Reflector with the SBIG ST-6 and 2x tele-converter.  The red, green and blue exposures, all 10 to 20 minutes long with the SBIG filters and guided by ST-4, except that:
    NGC2392 - pseudo color from red light exposures.
    NGC3242 - Used HPC-1 camera.
    NGC7662 - 20cm (8") f/5 Newtonian Reflector.

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I will be placing many more images on this and subsequent pages in the near future.

In the mean time, keep looking up!