Cali­for­nia Neb­ula (NGC 1499)

California Nebula NGC 1499 - Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

The Cali­for­nia Neb­ula (NGC 1499) is an emis­sion neb­ula loc­ated in the con­stel­la­tion Perseus. It is so named because it appears to resemble the out­line of the US State of Cali­for­nia on long expos­ure pho­to­graphs. It is almost 2.5° long on the sky and, because of its very low sur­face bright­ness, it is extremely dif­fi­cult to observe visu­ally. It lies at a dis­tance of about 1,000 light years from Earth. Its fluor­es­cence is due to excit­a­tion of the Ha line in the neb­ula by the nearby prodi­giously ener­get­ic O7 star, xi Per­sei (also known as Men­kib, seen near the cen­ter of the image).

[descrip­tion from wikipedia]

Details

Tele­scope:
Taka­hashi FSQ-106EDX III
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
Andor CG16M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
(HaL)RGB (580:480):180:180:180 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart Cali­for­nia Neb­ula (NGC 1499)

California Nebula (NGC 1499) Sky Chart - Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Image cre­ated by Skychart

About Me

Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. “Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”. Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.

Cat­egory

Tags