Planetary nebula in Taurus
This is a pretty planetary nebula with a bright star (magnitude 9.4) in its center. This star and the surrounding nebula caught the attention of William Herschel in 1790. Before seeing this object, Herschel and many other astronomers believed that all nebulae were actually composed of distant stars, too faint to be resolved. This was true of many of the faint, fuzzy objects they observed (such as distant galaxies, which were also called nebulae back in those days), but of course planetary nebulae are composed of glowing gas, not faint stars. Upon seeing NGC 1514 with the star exactly in the center, Herschel changed his mind and concluded that the surrounding nebula must not be tiny stars but some other glowing substance.
As this image shows, NGC 1514 has a complex and delicate shape, reminiscent of the petals of a flower. Some astronomers believe that the central star is actually a close binary, and the rotation of this pair of stars is the cause of the complex structure.
| Magnitude | 10.9 |
| Apparent Size | 2.3' x 2.0' |
| Distance (light yrs) | 2,400 |
| Right Ascension | 4:09.3 |
| Declination | +30 47 |
| Field of View | 28' x 21' |
Image details: Exposure times of 60 minutes luminance and 30 minutes each of red, green, and blue, taken with an SBIG STF-8300M imager and a 14" Meade LX850 telescope at f/6.
February 2019