NGC 7662 is a bright planetary nebula in the constellation Andromeda and is listed with a magnitude of 8.6. It is also known as the Blue Snowball Nebula, one look at my photo and you’ll see why. The full frame image shows a bit of detail in the central section of the nebula, however, applying a software scale of 600% and applying several color filters shows additional features (see inset picture).
Planetary nebula are created when a red giant star expels its outer layers, these outer layers are then illuminated by the new central white dwarf star. Typically these planetary nebula only last a few tens of thousands of years before dissipating.
Tech Specs: This image is composed of 32 x 15 second images at ISO 3200 with additional dark and bias frames using a Meade LX90 12” telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, and Canon 6D camera. Imaging was done on September 27, 2016.
Online Resources:
EarthSky.org has a nice gallery of planetary nebula that can be viewed at http://earthsky.org/space/gallery-of-planetary-nebulas-from-chandra-and-hubble
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7662)