by Craig and Tammy Temple
Located approximately 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia and part of the Perseus Spiral Arm, is an H II region known as NGC 281 - The Pacman Nebula, which was named so because of it's resemblance to the 1980s video game character of the same name. Within this region is the open cluster IC1590, the multiple star HD5005, and several Bok globules. E. E. Barnard discovered this nebula in August 1883 and described it as "a large faint nebula, very diffuse." While it's magnitude is unknown, this nebula can be seen in amateur telescopes from dark sky locations. Other designations for this region are IC11 and Sh2-184. This image is a false-color representation using the modified Hubble palette technique by Bob Franke.
Telescope: Sky Watcher Quantum 120mm @ f/7
Accessories: SW Quantum flattener; Dew control by Dew Buster; Alnitak Flat-Man
Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2
Camera: QSI583wsg CCD @ -10.0C
Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar via PHD
Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, OIII & SII
Exposure: 15 x 20min. (Ha), 15 x 20min. (OIII), 15 x 20min. (SII)
Acquisition: ImagesPlus 4.0c Camera Control
Processing: Registration in RegiStar
Post-processing: Adobe Photoshop CS5; Noel Carboni’s Actions; Noise Ninja
Date(s): August 27 & 29, 2011, September 21, 23 & 26, 2011, October 1, 2011
Location: Hendersonville, TN, USA