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Make sure to explore Astronomy's full list of 101 cosmic objects you must see. The nebula and stellar association lie some 7,000 to 8,000 light-years from us, in the Perseus Arm. The Bubble Nebula falls within the Cassiopeia OB2 stellar association - a group of young, hot stars that formed together and live fast and die hard. The Bubble Nebula itself marks the edge of a shock wave interacting with the hydrogen atoms in the interstellar medium. Astronomers also estimate this star is losing mass at a rate of 1 solar mass every million years. Its peculiar spectral classification of O6.5 indicates its surface temperature is a whopping 67,000 degrees Fahrenheit (37,200 degrees Celsius). The star SAO 20575 is the creator of the Bubble Nebula and is estimated to weigh 45 solar masses. A 7th-magnitude star in the area can interfere with an observer’s ability to get fully dark adapted. The Bubble Nebula is 15' by 8' with a visual magnitude of about 10, although that light is spread out, making it appear much fainter. It is equidistant from the HII region NGC 7538, located to the Bubble’s northwest. If you can find the bright open cluster M52, scan less than a degree southwest and you may find the Bubble’s pale hydrogen glow. It is one of those objects that benefits from increased aperture.įinding NGC 7635 is easy - it lies about 0.5° from the Cepheus border in Cassiopeia. If you observe under extremely dark skies, this nebula can be seen in a 6-inch telescope. The Color of Light by Blue Moon Atlas, released 21 June 2020 1. A Hydrogen-II filter or UHC filter are helpful in bringing out detail.
Viewing the Bubble Nebula requires skies free of light pollution.
This emission nebula, which is composed of ionized hydrogen energized by an O-type star, is part of a larger complex of glowing gases. In a telescope, the Bubble Nebula looks more like a comma because the full extent of its spherical shell is so faint that it was only discovered through photography. If you fancy trying to land on the Moon, try Apollo Eagle, a simulation of the last 50,000 feet of the Apollo 11 landing.William Herschel first observed NGC 7635 in 1787 as a glow around the magnitude 8.7 star SAO 20575 (cataloged earlier as BD+60☂522). Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn atlases are also available on the App Store!Īlso there is Planisphere, a star charting app, available on the App Store! You can swipe left and right on the phase view to go backwards and forwards a day and on the libration chart to go backwards and forwards a month. In addition, information about the current Moon phase and libration are provided. Over 1800 named features are included as well as 26 spacecraft that reached the surface of the Moon. The Moon globe can be shown with north or south at the top or inverted to suit different telescope views. The ice crystals are contained in the tiny cirrus clouds hanging 20,000 feet high or more. Hexagonal shapes are often put forward as the most likely shape.
There is also a realtime mode that will update to the current time. Although both the moon and sun halos are the most common types of halo, the exact shape of the ice crystal responsible for their formation is still not clear. The phase can be switched off and the far side is shown in a slightly darker shade of grey.ĭate, time and location can be changed. The feature database is searchable and can move the globe to a searched feature. You can switch to a 'Globe' mode that allows you to spin the Moon around to see far side features.
Moon Atlas displays the phase and libration of the Moon from your chosen location and renders these on the globe. You can double tap on the labels to get more information about a particular feature. As you zoom in more labels appear as finer detail comes into view.
This is a rendered sphere and not a static map image. Moon Atlas is an astronomy application that lets you use pinch and finger gestures to manipulate a 3D globe of the Moon.