NGC 246 (Skull Nebula) from Banon

In 2010 I imaged the planetary nebula NGC 246—also known as the Skull Nebula—during a holiday in Banon, France, using my DSLR equipment under the region’s characteristically dark skies. The Skull Nebula is a large and relatively faint planetary nebula located in the constellation Cetus, spanning nearly 4 arcminutes and lying about 1,600 light-years away.

What makes this object particularly interesting is its off-center white dwarf, which, together with a close companion, forms a wide triple system—an unusual configuration for a planetary nebula and one that likely influenced its asymmetric shape. The nebula’s patchy, filamentary shell and low surface brightness make it a challenging target for amateur imaging, but the dark skies of Banon provided ideal conditions to capture its subtle outer structures. This early DSLR project remains one of my favorite wide planetary nebula images from that period.

The last time I imaged this nebula in Hα in 2015 from my own backyard. For the following image, I have combined this Hα data with the RGB data from 2010. Data calibration, registration and the final processing was done with PixInsight. The result was as follows:

In the image you can find the asteroid 8283 Edinburgh.

The images were taken with the following equipment:

• Date 2010
• Location: Banon, France
• Telescope: 8″ GSO Newton
• Focal length [mm]: 200
• Focal ratio: 4
• Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6
• Camera: Canon 500 Da
• Filter: OSC
• Exposure time [min]: 150
• Resolution: 1.19″/px