Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1) (Greg Erianne)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Gemini (Gem) · Contains: PK205+14.1 · Sh2-274

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Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1)

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Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1)

The Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1) was named after the Gorgon Medusa, a hideous creature in Greek Mythology with snakes for hair. It is a large planetary nebula that was thought to be a supernova remnant until the early 1970s and is about 1,500 light-years (ly) away in the constellation Gemini with a diameter of about 4 ly. Because of its large size, its surface brightness is low making it a difficult object to find visually.

The central star of the Medusa Nebula is classified as a pre-degenerate star, or a PG 1159 star. As these stars degenerate and shed material, they become white dwarfs. In the annotated image, the crosshairs of the PK205+14.1 designation lie directly over the bluish, central star of this nebula.

The Medusa Nebula gets its name from the intertwining filaments of hydrogen gas seen easily in the top of the image and that resemble the Medusa’s snake-like hair. Below the bright upper portion of the image, one can image the Medusa’s face, complete with a left eye glowing red, a space for a nose, and a mouth below that. The stuff of nightmares…

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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.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9438339
PixInsight job	O896JXTP99LEX1O477H3WBVCUGZZVFQ9
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	07h28m39s.670
RA (top/left)	07h28m27s.320
RA (top/right)	07h30m19s.807
RA (bottom/right)	07h28m52s.380
RA (bottom/left)	07h26m59s.362

Dec (center)	+13°20′19″.71
Dec (top/left)	+12°54′22″.18
Dec (top/right)	+13°10′56″.56
Dec (bottom/right)	+13°46′16″.63
Dec (bottom/left)	+13°29′39″.100

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Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1)

Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1)

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Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1)

Medusa Nebula (Sh2-274; Abell 21; Planetary Nebula PK205+14.1)

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