Waid Observatory

Object: NGC 7635
Image Aquaired: Aug. 31, Sept. 1,3 and 4, 2013  -  Location: Denton, TX  -  Telescope: ATRC-12
Camera: ST-10XME Guided with Inovations Foresight ONAG
Exposure - SII = 240 min.   Ha = 170 min.   OIII = 240 min. - RGB for stars = 30 min. each filter.
All images binned 2X2 using 600 sec. sub-exposures for narrowband and 120 sec. for RGB.
Click on the image below to view at higher resolution.

 

NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula

NGC 7635 (The Bubble Nebula) 1

NGC 7635 is commonly known as the Bubble Nebula and is located approximately 11 thousand light-years distant in the constellation Cassiopeia.  The nebula was formed by a very massive star designated BD +60°2522.  This star is estimated to be about 40 times as massive as our Sun.  Its huge energy emissions and prodigious stellar winds have blown a bubble of ionized gas approximately 6 to 10 light-years in diameter.  This very active star is of a stellar class known as Wolf-Reyet stars.  These stars are in the final stage of their lives and are rapidly expelling their outer layers in an extremely powerful and high velocity stellar wind that can exceed 1500 kilometers per second.  When this wind rams into a surrounding interstellar gas cloud it creates an expanding shock front we observe as a ring or bubble.  This process will continue until the star finally ends its violent life in a supernova explosion.

The image above is known as a mapped, or false, color image and was acquired using narrowband filters.  It was assembled using the standard Hubble palette with SII mapped to Red, Ha mapped to Green and OIII mapped to Blue.  The stars were overlaid with color data from a separate RGB image.  This was accomplished in Photoshop with the purpose of displaying stars that approximate true colors.

1http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Bubbletext.html

 
Copyright Donald P. Waid