Catseye nebula NGC 6543 by lucky imaging and deconvolution (Tim Hawkes)

Catseye nebula NGC 6543 by lucky imaging and deconvolution

2s and 10s subframe luminance images were each carefully Richardson-Lucy deconvolved in PixInsight and then combined into a high dynamic range luminance image. This image was added as luminance to a colour RGB image of the catseye. The bright central "parallelogram" structure is about 18 x 22 arcsec across and thus the resolution of the final image can be estimated as close to ~ 1 arcsec. Judged by comparison with professional images the deconvolution process did not add too many artifacts.

The catseye one of my favourite objects. Pulsed emissions of star stuff every 1500 years or so forming bright ionized bubbles at the core - the faint outer nebula released much earlier. At the core an extremely hot Wolf-Rayet type white dwarf ionizing and energising N+ and O2+ to excited spin states and emitting red and blue-green from forbidden transitions. Hard X ray emissions providing evidence for a hidden binary companion star with a high energy acretion disc . Likely therefore that the WR star is precessing in its orbit - which might partly account for the peculiar shape of the core nebula and the apparent multiple positions of the unionized 'cap' material - possibly marking the axis of a former pulse shell?

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
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Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6253512
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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