NGC 2438

Click on image for larger version.

When you think of NGC 2438- think of stellar evolution and beauty! This glowing bubble of gas was cast off by a dying star several hundred thousand years ago. The sphere of gas is in the foreground (2,900 light years away) of the young and energetic stars of M46 (a star cluster). Note that the central star is the very small dim blue star just to upper left of a brighter background neighbor.

Equipment

20in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.4
Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

L R G B color production was used to create this image.

L = 60 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 10 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 10 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 10 minutes binned 2x2
  • Two iterations of Lucy-Richardson deconvolution via CCDSharp were applied to this image.

    • Minimum credit line: Nicole Bies and Esidro Hernandez/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 11/29/2003