IC 1590 7x15min. PacMan Nebula · 2025-09-30

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.

IC 1590 7x15min. PacMan Nebula
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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]

Accoding to ChatGPT... IC 1590 is a young open star cluster embedded within the bright emission nebula NGC 281, also known as the Pacman Nebula, in the constellation Cassiopeia. The cluster lies at the heart of this active star-forming region, illuminating and shaping the surrounding gas and dust through powerful stellar winds and radiation from its massive, hot stars (SIMBAD). Prominent dark dust lanes carve out the “mouth” of the Pacman shape seen in deep astrophotography.

Located about 9,200 light-years away (NED), IC 1590 spans roughly 10 light-years across and is part of a much larger molecular cloud complex associated with the H II region Sharpless 2-184. The cluster and its nebula are prominent targets for narrowband imaging, revealing intricate details of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur emissions (APOD 2014-09-08). The region is visually challenging under light-polluted skies but rewarding for astrophotographers using Hα filters. Look for it near the eastern portion of Cassiopeia, the celestial Queen.

Total image time was 1.75 hours. Imaged during the Full Moon with cloudy periods.

Moon PhaseFull Moon
Exposure7 × 15 min
Gain100
CameraToupTek ATR2600C [6224 × 4168]
Optics120 mm Sky-Watcher Esprit on a Proxisky UMi20S Strain Wave mount
GuidingToupTek GPM462M using PHD2 with a 400 mm guide scope. Average 15-min sub GuideRMS ranged from 0.61 to 0.82 using 0.5 s exposures.
ControllerKStars on MeLe Quieter 4C
FilterTriad Quad Ultra
LocationLower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date2025-09-30
ProcessingProcessed in PixInsight.
PixInsight Processing
WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script
BlurXTerminator
GraXpert
NoiseXTerminator
Screen Transfer stretch applied using the Histogram Stretch
HDRMultiscaleTransform
CurveTransformation

References: NASA APOD (2006-09-06), NASA APOD (2014-09-08), SIMBAD Astronomical Database, NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), Sharpless 2-184 entry.

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