NGC3242 or as it is more commonly known, “the Ghost of Jupiter” was my fist Deep Space Object (DSO) I looked at when I got my telescope. I recommend it. . .like I recommend all of the things I’ve looked at, It looks bluish ranging from dark blue to blue-green.
This Object was discovered by William Herschel February 7, 1785. It is a Planetary Nebula in the constellation Hydra. Planetary nebula are a late stage in a sun-like star’s life, when its outer layers have been thrown off and are lit up by ultraviolet light from the central star. Our star, the sun, will end it’s life as a planetary nebula.
The shell is approximately two light years long length wise, and contains a central white dwarf which is an apparent magnitude of 11. It is Estimated to have formed 1500 years ago. and has two noticeable Fliers or Lobes of gas that is expanding out from the star. Technically you should be able to see it in a small telescope and get the outer halo with a larger scope.
What I want to point out and this is a point of inspiration for me is this.
This Photo was free to use from the public domain, but what I am pointing out is this photo was with a 10″ version of my telescope. I am using an Unguided Celestron Nextstar 6SE (a 6″ aperture) and I used an Orion Deep Space video Imager II. Not exactly top of the line equipment, but not bottom tier either. Once I had my image stacked I used Photoshop to do final processing. You can get decent pictures or wet your feet to see how committed you are with the same gear. My first attempt when I started astrophotography was this:
I don’t think this was too bad considering I had no idea what I was doing except using registax5 at the time and pretty much guessing and trial and error my way through it.
Not as sharp as the top picture, but this was an attempt to zoom in on the object to magnify it. It’s not as sharp as the 10″ but you can still see the structure. I think my best picture of this is the top photo in this article. Not only do I want to introduce readers to objects and wondrous sights, but I would like to point out that you can get into this hobby with out breaking the bank, get good pictures and get better as you work at it.
Raw data here and it’s SIMBAD entry
| Observation data (Epoch J2000) |
|
|---|---|
| Right ascension | 10h 24m 46.1s |
| Declination | −18° 38′ 32.6″ |
| Distance | 1400 ly |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 8.60 |
| Apparent dimensions (V) | 25″ |
| Constellation | Hydra |
Six Alberts Astronomy & Astrophotography 