Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  IC 1590  ·  NGC 281
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NGC 281 A classic Pac-Man, Christophe Perroud
NGC 281 A classic Pac-Man
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NGC 281 A classic Pac-Man

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 281 A classic Pac-Man, Christophe Perroud
NGC 281 A classic Pac-Man
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 281 A classic Pac-Man

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Hi astro-friends,

This is again an image taken back in September 2022, a classic one but always pleasant to look at : NGC 281, aka the Pac-Man Nebula , in the constellation of Cassiopeia, named after the iconic video game from the 80's. 

Edward Emerson Barnard discovered the nebula in August 1883, describing it as "a large faint nebula, very diffuse".

According to most recent researches, this bright emission nebula lies about 10’000 l-y away and spans 30 by 30 arcmin in the night sky. There are mostly HII regions ionized by the brightest members of the open cluster, named IC1590, embedded in the center of the nebula and populated by  279 stars. This area is also home of intense star formation in the Bok globules, the dark patches of dense cosmic dust and gas that pop up in front of the nebula.

Clear skies.
Christophe

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NGC 281 A classic Pac-Man, Christophe Perroud