Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635)

[Bill Richards]

The Bubble Nebula is an emission nebula located approximately 7,100 light-years from Earth. Its massive outer shell is 7 light-years across—about 1.5 times the distance from our sun to Alpha Centauri. The bubble is created by a super-hot star that is 45 times more massive than our sun. Gas escaping the star forms a stellar wind moving at over 4 million miles per hour, sweeping up cold interstellar gas into an expanding shell. Because this shell slams into dense regions of cold gas on one side, its expansion is slowed, making the bubble asymmetric relative to the star (located at the 12 o'clock position in the image).

This is the result of 8 hours of exposure time taken on 2026-09-11 and 2026-10-08.

Equipment and Software:
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Mount: 10Micron GM1000HPS w/PoleMaster
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8 w/0.7x focal reducer
Auto-Focuser: Rigel Systems nFOCUS
Imaging Camera: ASI2600MC-Duo
Filter: AstroHutech NBZ dual-band
Guide Camera: ASI174MM-Mini on OAG
Imaging S/W: NINA
Guiding S/W: PHD2
Image Processing S/W: PixInsight


Exposure Details:
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Camera Temperature -10C
Bias: 50
Gain: 100
80 x 300s w/dual-band filter
38 x 120s w/o filter
Plus 32x Darks, Flats, and Dark Flats

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