NGC 246 Skull Nebula in Cetus

This planetary nebula is around 1600 lightyears distant, and is unusual in having a triple star system at its centre. The nebula is the remains of a sun-like star, that started shedding its outer layers - our own sun will have a similar fate in around 5 billion years.

This image is the result of 1h10m of LRGB and 50m of narrowband (Ha and OIII) remote data capture from Chile, over three evenings in October 2023. Ha has been mapped to red and OIII to both green and blue. A 20-inch Planewave CDK reflector and FLI ML16200 camera were used.

Date: 23/10/2023

Photographer: Graham Wilcock

NGC 246 Skull Nebula in Cetus

This planetary nebula is around 1600 lightyears distant, and is unusual in having a triple star system at its centre. The nebula is the remains of a sun-like star, that started shedding its outer layers - our own sun will have a similar fate in around 5 billion years.

This image is the result of 1h10m of LRGB and 50m of narrowband (Ha and OIII) remote data capture from Chile, over three evenings in October 2023. Ha has been mapped to red and OIII to both green and blue. A 20-inch Planewave CDK reflector and FLI ML16200 camera were used.

Date: 23/10/2023

Photographer: Graham Wilcock