The Soap Bubble Nebula (PN G75.5+1.7, also cataloged as Ju 1) is a faint planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus, sitting near the much brighter Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888), with which it is often framed in the same wide-field shot.
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The Soap Bubble Nebula (PN G75.5+1.7, also cataloged as Ju 1) is a faint planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus, sitting near the much brighter Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888), with which it is often framed in the same wide-field shot. It takes its name from its remarkably symmetrical, spherical shape and spans about 260 arcseconds. Despite being relatively large on the sky, it went undiscovered until 2007-2008, when amateur astronomers Dave Jurasevich, and independently Keith Quattrocchi and Mel Helm, first imaged it - a testament to how faint it is against the surrounding diffuse nebulosity of the Cygnus Milky Way. Because it's so faint, Hα or O III narrowband filters and long integration are essentially required to bring out its delicate bubble-shaped shell.