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| NGC 281 - The Pacman Nebula © Billy Vazquez 2011 VAO @ Webster, NY |
As I was growing up, I remember my first refractor telescope that my grandmother bought for me at the Hayden Planetarium in NYC. I was 8 years old and I felt like a million bucks. I remember the first light of my 2 inch refractor as I attempted to look at the night sky from my parents suburban residence in Puerto Rico. I could see the stars but it made me wonder where were all those galaxies and nebulas I have seen in books? Why can't I find them?
It took me some years but finally, I found them. The image shown here its the PacMan Nebula, NGC 281. I took this image from VAO using the 30cm LX200 ACF, 5 minute exposure in LRGB filters, post processed by MaximDL and Photoshop. The nebula is a HII region, where you can see dark patches where no light is coming from. These dark patches are called Bok Globules and it is where the magic happens. Stars are born within the Bok Globules but the material around this new born stars is so dense that we cannot see them in optical light.
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