Cat’s Eye Neb­ula (NGC 6543)

Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) - Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Click here for highest Resolution

The Cat’s Eye Neb­ula or NGC 6543, is a plan­et­ary neb­ula in the con­stel­la­tion of Draco at mag­nitude 8.1 with high sur­face bright­ness, dis­covered by Wil­li­am Her­schel in 1786. While the bright­er inner neb­ula is rather small (16″ * 25″), it has an extened halo of mat­ter that the pro­gen­it­or star ejec­ted dur­ing its red giant phase. This halo extends over a dia­met­er of about 300″. The cat’s Eye neb­ula lies three thou­sand light-years from Earth.

The image is a com­bin­a­tion of broad­band LRGB and nar­row­band Ha/​OIII images. Long exposed Ha/​OIII where used to dis­play the faint, out­er halo of the PN. To reveal the struc­ture of the small, very bright cen­ter, a short exposed RGB was blen­ded over the ‘wide-field’ image.

[descrip­tion from wikipedia]

Details

Tele­scope:
RCOS 14.5″ f/​8
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
Andor CG16M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
LRGBHaOIII 440:140:140:140:510:510 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart Cat’s Eye Neb­ula (NGC 6543)

Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) Sky Chart - Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Image cre­ated by Skychart

↑ Back to Nebulae

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

Perseus (1)