NGC 281, IC 11 or Sh2-184 is a bright emission nebula and part of an H II region in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia and is part of the Milky Way's Perseus Spiral Arm.
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
NGC 281, IC 11 or Sh2-184 is a bright emission nebula and part of an H II region in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia and is part of the Milky Way's Perseus Spiral Arm. This 20×30 arcmin sized nebulosity is also associated with open cluster IC 1590, several Bok globules and the multiple star, B 1. It collectively forms Sh2-184, spanning over a larger area of 40 arcmin. A recent distance from radio parallaxes of water masers at 22 GHz made during 2014 is estimated it lies 2.82±0.20 kpc from us. Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_281]
Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | First Quarter |
|---|---|
| Camera: | Seestar S50 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor) |
| Optics: | 260 mm focal length, f/5.2, 50 mm aperture |
| Filter: | LP |
| Binning: | 1x1 |
| Stacking: | StackingWizard, 44 frames |
| Date: | 2026-09-18 |
| Number of images: | 44 |
| Exposure per image: | 60 s |
| Total imaging time: | 44 min |
AstroWizard Processing
- Crop
- GraXpert background extraction (0.5) (x2)
- Flatten sky background
- Color calibration (x2)
- BlurXTerminator (0.6)
- NoiseXTerminator (linear, 0.6) (x2)
- Stretch (deep)
- Stretch (deep) (starless)
- Star removal (StarXTerminator)
- Curves adjustment (x10)
- Saturation adjustment (x2)
- Contrast (pop) adjustment (x3)
- Color recalibration
- NoiseXTerminator (non-linear, 0.6)
- Star recombination (screen blend)
