C15 — Blinking Planetary
Planetary Nebula in Cygnus
About
NGC 6826, a small, bright planetary nebula in Cygnus about 2,000 light-years away. Its nickname comes from the central star: look straight at it and the nebula fades, glance aside and it returns.
Imaging tips
- Too small to frame, with a bright shell only about 27″ across inside a halo of roughly 2′: use a long focal length and a fine pixel scale.
- The bright shell and the faint halo need different exposures: one imager shot 15-second luminance and RGB subs for the core, then 8-minute Hα and OIII subs for the halo.
- One 11.5-hour set used Hα and OIII at 8 minutes per sub plus short RGB and luminance frames.
- Best in July; it passes nearly overhead, peaking near 89° from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 2′
- Magnitude
- 8.6
- Coordinates
- RA 19h 44.8m, Dec +50° 32′
- Framing, APS-C
- longer than 4000 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Jul
- Peak altitude
- 90° from 50°N, 75° from 35°N