 I've
heard this region referred to as the "Pac Man
Nebula." To me, it looks like a large, diffuse
"P". There is a lot here to see. The
nebula itself is visible as a faint haze, cut by very
distinct dark lanes of dust. Within the nebula lies
the open cluster IC 1590, a very young group of stars that
formed recently from the gas and dust complex. Within
the nebula lie several dark Bok globules and the cluster is
highlighted by the nice double star HD 5005.
The nebula is
pretty faint without a filter, but with an OIII in place it
stands out quite well. In my 18-inch f/4.5 at 94x the
glow of the nebula was easily visible, although I would not
claim it was obvious. It appeared as a slight,
irregularly shaped haze with many stars embedded in
it. The H-Beta filter helped some, but it was the OIII
filter that really brought it out. At 250x without the
filter the contrast was very much improved. With the
filter in place this gave the best view. The nebula
filled the field of view, spilling over in several
directions. I identified at least four major parts,
apparently separated by dark lanes.
The main pair
of HD 5005 consists of a massive O star that shines at
magnitude 7.8 and a 9th magnitude companion some 3.9"
away. HD 5005 is the bright blue star in the image on
the right. This hot, bright, primary star produces
much of the radiation required to "light up" the
gas in the nebula.
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