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Old June 18th 07, 11:52 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Rick Johnson[_2_]
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Default ASTRO: Common object uncommonly processed

As Stefan and Richard mention this is the Cat's Eye Nebula NGC 6543.
The bright blue part of it to the right is IC 4677. The Cat's Eye
nebula is about 3000 light years away. There are two famous Hubble
shots of it:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061112.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070513.html

A composite of the eye and the distant faint shell I shot, as Richard
wants to avoid, taken by earth based scopes is at:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020904.html

If I ever get super seeing, I'll try a similar compost. To do it in one
shot isn't possible with an ABG camera like mine. With a long enough
exposure to capture the outer shell the inner part is reduced to a
handful of intensity levels by the ABG gate. In my shot the core was
57126 to 57214 ADU units showing no useful detail.

The galaxy is NGC 6552 and is some 325 to 350 million light years
distant. For it to appear this large at that distance it is a giant galaxy!

Rick