NGC 7662 – The Blue Snowball in Andromeda

Telescope: GSO 8” f/12 Classical Cassegrain @ f/12, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: Canon EOS Ra, Baader Mk III MPCC

Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: Williams Optics 50mm, ASI290MM mini, PHD

Exposure: 22x60sec, ISO 800, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/25sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, poor transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 17.8 mag/arc-sec^2

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Backyard EOS, Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

NGC 7662 is a remarkable little planetary nebula in Andromeda. Visually, it appears as a beautiful blue spot, easily visible even in my little ETX-60 as an out of focus star. Photographically, it shows a sharply defined shell with a ring circling the central star. The shell also shows hints of fine detail. The central star itself is rather unusual for a planetary in that it is a variable star that ranges from Mv 12 to 16.

This is the first in a series of images taken to test the performance of the CC8 at f/12 with a full-frame camera. This shows some interesting possibilities as a high-resolution imaging system.

The Blue Snowball is presently in the northwest as the sky darkens.