Pacman Nebula

Description

"NGC 281 is an HII region in the constellation of Cassiopeia and part of the Perseus Spiral Arm. It includes the open cluster IC 1590, the multiple star HD 5005, and several Bok globules. Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character.

The nebula was discovered in August 1883 by E. E. Barnard, who described it as ""a large faint nebula, very diffuse."" The multiple star HD 5005, also called beta1, was discovered by S. W. Burnham. It consists of an 8th-magnitude primary with four companions at distances between 1.4 and 15.7 seconds of arc. There has been no appreciable change in this quintuple system since the first measurements were made in 1875."

Equipment and processing

Telescope: Orion 8 inch F5

Mount: Orion Atlas

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader Ha,SII,OIII 7nm

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: bin1 25x600 OIII: bin2 50x600 SII: bin2 50x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ