Observation by David Davies: NGC246, The Skull Nebula

Uploaded by

David Davies

Observer

David Davies

Observed

2021 Nov 20 - 11:15

Uploaded

2021 Nov 20 - 11:22

Objects

The Skull Nebula (NGC246)

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Constellation

Cetus

Field centre

RA: 00^h47^m
Dec: -11°52'
Position angle: +0°02'

Field size

0°23' × 0°17'

Equipment

200mm Ritchey-Chretien telescope
QSI 683 camera
Skywatcher EQ8 mount

Exposure

15 x 5-min each of RGB, 51 X 5-min of luminance

Location

Cambridge, UK

Target name

NGC 246, The Skull Nebula

Title

NGC246, The Skull Nebula

About this image

I've always considered the Skull Nebula to be too low in the sky, with a maximum altitude of just 26 deg from my location, to image successfully. However, clear skies on the nights of 30th and 31st October gave me an opportunity to attempt it.

The first inspection of my captured image revealed that the central star was not round. My first reaction was to think that I had some guiding errors but I quickly realised that other stars in the image did not exhibit the same feature and this set me to investigate further. Inspection of the central star revealed a 12 mag blue-white primary star and a 14 mag orange companion. It is the 14 mag dwarf orange companion that is the origin of the nebula. There is just a hint of the companion visible in this image. I've reprocessed the image to bring out the companion star and I will post that separately.

Files associated with this observation

NGC246_LRGB_crop.jpg (926.0 kB)

Like this image

David Strange, Alan Thomas, Mattia Piccoli, Callum Potter, Graham Winstanley, Dominic Ford

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