The Saturn Nebula

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Common Name: The Saturn Nebula Other Names: NGC 7009 RA: 21 04 02 Dec - 11 22 Constellation: Aquarius Distance: 2400 light years Magnitude: 8.0 Image 1 Telescope: Meade LX200GPS 14" Camera: SBig ST-8 Filters: C Exposure: 10 x 10 seconds Date: 25/7/2006 Software acquisition: acquired with ccdsoft Processing Software: Maxim DL, stacking of 10 x 10 sec exposures. Where: Tenby Observatory, Coonabarabran Lat: 31 16 35.05 S, Long 149 11 33.99 E, Elevation 547metres Image 2 Same as image 1, processing stretch, cropped, contrast changed Image 3 same as image 2 but unsharp mask applied Image 4 Telescope: Meade LX200GPS 14" Camera: Canon 300D Filters: N/A Exposure: Date: 2004 Software acquisition: acquired with canon Processing Software: Maxim DL, Where: Castle Hill, Sydney, NSW Lat: 31 16 35.05 S, Long 149 11 33.99 E, Elevation 100 metres Notes: The Saturn Nebula obtains its name as it looks like saturn in shape. It was discovered in 1782 by William Herscall. Planetary Nebula are the remains of the outershell of sunlike stars that have ended their lives as a white dwarf star. The name planetary nebula was given by Messier. Planetary Nebula aquire their name as they appeared to look like the planets neptune an Uranus through low power telescopes. Planetary Nebulae are quite common with 1500 known in our galaxy alone. They are relatively short lived phenomena and disspipate into the interstellar medium within 20 000 years. The Dumbbell is thought to be between 3000 to 4000 years old. Most of the light from planetary nebulae are emitted at 500.7nm and hence the blue - green colour. Our eyes see this colour very well however is dimmer photographically. At the time this was discovered there was no known element to create this emission line so an element was made up called nebulium. It was later found to be the forbidden lines of [OIII] double ionised oxygen.