NGC 6302 (Gary Imm)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Scorpius (Sco) · Contains: Bug Nebula · NGC 6302 · PK349+01.1

NGC 6302

This beautiful multipolar planetary nebula is located in the southern sky in the constellation of Scorpius at a declination of -37 degrees.

This magnitude 9.6 PN has many names and nicknames. The names include NGC 6302, Sh2-6, Gum 60, RCW 124, and Caldwell 69. The nicknames include the Butterfly Nebula, the Bipolar Nebula, and the Bug Nebula.

The PN is located almost 4,000 light years from earth. The butterfly's wingspan is over 3 light-years wide. It is relatively small in the sky at 3 minutes wide.

The butterfly shape is likely due to high speed gas outflow from the central star. Several different axes of outflow can be seen. A dark and dusty torus of gas is believed to be the "waist" around the central star, constricting its outflows.

The central star is a very hot white dwarf which is not visible here, nor was it visible in the early Hubble images. Later Hubble images with the Wide Field Camera 3 revealed a faint central star.

Final
Original
D

Images from the EdgeHD Series
ASI 6200 MM Pro
Cloudy Nights
Texas Astronomy
Planetary Nebulae
AstroBin Platform open discussions community forum
Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) Imagers

100 Most Recent Images
100 of My Favorite images
Caldwell Catalog (Complete*)
Gum Catalog (47/85)
Multi-Polar PN
PN
Sharpless Catalog (201/313)

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape
Artificial satellite

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	D59YGO6VQ0L1G7BB93SXMBSSM2F3O3ER
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	17h13m44s.321
RA (top/left)	17h14m39s.130
RA (top/right)	17h12m48s.220
RA (bottom/right)	17h12m49s.380
RA (bottom/left)	17h14m40s.736

Dec (center)	-37°06′13″.11
Dec (top/left)	-36°58′47″.61
Dec (top/right)	-36°59′16″.00
Dec (bottom/right)	-37°13′37″.80
Dec (bottom/left)	-37°13′09″.44

AstroBin

AstroBin

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6302

NGC 6302

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

In these collections

		...
You have no new notifications.

AstroBin

AstroBin

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6302

NGC 6302

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

In these collections

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

Delete this revision?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Error

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information