The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) emerges from the star-filled Cassiopeia constellation, framed by delicate interstellar dust and glowing gas. Captured through a total of 46 hours of integration, 19 hours in narrowband and 27 hours in LRGB, the image reveals exquisite details in the nebula’s ionized hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur regions, with intricate dark lanes cutting through the luminous clouds. These dense, dusty structures are active sites of star formation, sculpted by powerful stellar winds and radiation from hot, young stars. The rich colors come from a careful combination of narrowband emission data and natural-color broadband exposures, producing both scientific depth and aesthetic beauty.

Image Description and Details :

The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) is a cosmic cloud of space gas rich in Hydrogen Alpha (red/orange) and Oxygen (blue) located in the constellation Cassiopeia. It gets its name from the classic video game character it resembles. NGC 281 is a rather diffuse red-glowing emission nebula. It includes a small, yet noticeable open star cluster (IC 1590) and some really dynamic dust lanes. The prominent lane of dark dust cutting into this glowing nebula creates the “mouth” of this nebulas shape.The Pacman Nebula contains Bok globules, which are small and isolated dark nebulae containing dense amounts of dust and gas. These collections of cosmic gas and dust are often followed by the formation of new stars.Captured with 14.5 hours of narrowband data under a near full moon and Bortle Class 4 skies near downtown Flagstaff, Arizona.OTA: William Optics GT81 using 0.8x Flat6A-81 reducerMount: Celestron CGX-LCamera: ZWO ASI294MM ProGain: 100Filters:Night 1Chroma 3nm Oiii 900s x 32 = 8hrsNight 2Chroma 5nm Ha 900s x 26 = 6.5hrsCooling Temperature: -10 CelsiusAuto-guiding: ZWO ASI174MM Mini and ZWO M48 OAGControl: ZWO ASIAIR ProCalibrated in Astro Pixel Processor⁣ with darks and flatsProcessed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

Copyright: Drew Evans