NGC281 IC11, Sharpless Sh2-184, Pacman Nebula at the Curdridge Observatory

Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK
Object name: NGC281 IC11, Sharpless Sh2-184, Pacman Nebula
Apparent RA: 00 52 59.3 Apparent Dec:+56 37 19
Constellation: Cassiopeia
12 Sep 2014

Very clear but a bright Moon last night, so I selected NGC281, the Pacman Nebula, Sharpless Sh2-184 as a very bright hydrogen alpha target and left the scope imaging on it for about 6 hours giving 17x1200s frames.

This nebula is about 9500 light years away in the Perseus arm of our galaxy - this makes it about 100 light years across.

The small open cluster above the Pacman's mouth is IC1590 and the whole area is richly littered with Bok Globule star forming regions.

View full sized image of NGC281 IC11, Sharpless Sh2-184, Pacman Nebula

This object is part of the Sharpless Catalogue of HII regions

This image was autoguided using my homemade off axis guider with Lodestar.

Imaged with my homemade telescope mount

Exposure Details :

Astrodon 3nm Ha Coma Corrector 17x1200s on 200 @ F5 f.l. 1000 with Atik 490 camera

Equipment:

Skywatcher 200 Newt (upgraded with OO Hilux secondary)
Sky 90 Refractor
Homemade focus motor
Homemade filterwheel / OAG combo with Lodestar guide camera
Atik 490 CCD camera
Homemade Telescope mount

Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK