California Nebula - NGC 1499
The California Nebula is a faint emission nebula in the constellation Perseus. It lies at a distance of about 1500 light years in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy and is about 100 light years in length. The name of the nebula is attributed to the resemblance of its shape to the State of California. This cloud of gas glows in the red light characteristic of ionized hydrogen as it recombines with lost electrons. Close-up of California Nebula shows this object in greater detail.
Technical Details
- Object: California Nebula
- Object Type: Emission Nebula
- Other Names: NGC 1499, Sharpless 220
- Date/Time: 2011 Jan 24 at 04:35 UTC
- Location: Bifrost Astronomical Observatory, Portal, AZ
- Telescope: Nikkor 180mm F/2.8 Lens
- Mount: Astro-Physics 1200GTO
- Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) (modified with a Baader UV/IR filter)
- Exposure: 8 x 300s, f/2.8, ISO 800
- File Name: NGC1499-01w.jpg
- Processing: Stack of 8 Images, Crop, Levels, Unsharp Mask (Photoshop CS5)
- Original Image Size: 3454 × 5179 pixels (17.9 MP); 11.5" x 17.3" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2011 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.