NGC 281

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

NGC 281, IC 11 or Sh2-184 is a bright emission nebula and part of an H II region in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia and is part of the Milky Way’s Perseus Spiral Arm. This 20×30 arcmin sized nebulosity is also associated with open cluster IC 1590, several Bok globules and the multiple star, B 1. It collectively forms Sh2-184, spanning over a larger area of 40 arcmin.[4] A recent distance from radio parallaxes of water masers at 22 GHz made during 2014 is estimated it lies 2.82±0.20 kpc. (9200 ly.) from us. Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character.

Edward Emerson Barnard discovered the nebula in August 1883, describing it as “a large faint nebula, very diffuse”. The nebula region is visible in amateur telescopes from dark sky locations. In his book Deep Sky Wonders, Walter Scott Houston describes the appearance of the nebula in small telescopes. “There was a faint glow in the immediate vicinity of the multiple star, with an occasional impression of a much larger nebulosity…Its surface brightness was much less than that of M33 in Triangulum or NGC 205, the distant companion of the Andromeda galaxy.”

Personal reflections and information

Keywords: NGC 281, 110 Finest NGCs, Cassiopeia, emission nebula