Figure 1 – NGC 7635, The Bubble Nebula

The astronomy gods have been smiling on me with some gorgeous Bortle 4.1 skies. Yay! And I have been busily taking advantage of them. Today I would like to feature Figure 1 of the Bubble Nebula, NGC 7835, always a favorite and always gorgeous as long as you give it a sufficient exposure. This image was taken with my Celestron Origin using the Nebula Filter and 360 10 sec exposures; so one hour total.

In the vast tapestry of the cosmos, few objects are as visually striking—or as poetically named—as the Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635. It is 7,100 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia, and appears like a fragile soap bubble drifting in space.

The Bubble Nebula is, in fact, a massive shell of gas sculpted by the fierce stellar wind from a hot, young, and extremely energetic O-type star. This central star, more than 40 times the mass of our Sun, blasts out radiation and high-speed particles that plow into the surrounding interstellar medium. The result? A glowing, spherical shock front about 7 light-years across—roughly 1.5 times the distance between our Sun and the nearest star. The glowing shell is visible because it is energized by the ultraviolet light from the central star, causing the surrounding hydrogen gas to emit a pinkish-red hue—especially prominent in narrowband filters often used in astrophotography.

Though discovered in 1787 by William Herschel, the Bubble Nebula has only come into popular astronomical fame in the age of high-resolution telescopes and stunning Hubble images. Still, I always like to think about William and Caroline Herschel staring and wondering with their giant telescope.

The bubble itself is both intriguing and magical. As Hamlet famously said it “must give us pause.” It is one of my favorite deep sky objects and I was anxious to see what Origin would do with it under these less light polluted skies, and I am also studying what improvement using the Nebula Filter adds.

Needless-to-say, Dinah was simply thrilled by the experience.

Dinah is delighted by the Bubble Nebula