Object: NGC 281 also known as The Pacman Nebula is a cosmic cloud of space gas located in the constellation Cassiopeia and is part of the Milky Way’s Perseus Spiral Arm. NGC 281 gets its name from the classic video game character it resembles. Many people think that this nebula resembles a heart. It is approximately 9,200 light years from Earth and 48 light years in circumference.
Taken: August 9, 2019
Telescope: Astro-Tech 14” RC with 0.65x focal reducer
Mount: Paramount ME II unguided
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro (cooled to -15C; unity gain) Bin 2×2.
Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Filters used: H-a, O-III and S-II narrowband on a ZWO 8 position filter wheel
Exposures: 28×100 sec H-a; 25×100 sec O-III and 25×100 sec S-II, for a total exposure time of 2.167 hours; calibrated 25 dark frames, 32 flat frames with 32 dark-flats. Image was processed in the Hubble (SHO) palette.
Seeing Conditions:
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop CC 2023