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The Bubble Nebula

NGC 7635 and M52, in Cassiopeia  ·  Foraxx palette, true-colour stars  ·  26.5 hours over five nights, September 2026

The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635 — a small cyan shell at the centre of a large red hydrogen cloud, with the star cluster M52 at left and the small nebula Sh2-159 at top right

The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635), M52 and Sh2-159  ·  Foraxx palette with true-colour stars  ·  ©2026 Peter F. Wingard  ·  @see_theShow

A bubble blown by one star

The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635 in Cassiopeia, with the star cluster M52 on the left and the small nebula Sh2-159 at top right. The Bubble is blown by a single star, BD+60 2522, about 45 times the mass of the Sun, whose wind streams out at more than 4 million miles per hour and inflates a shell into the cloud of hydrogen around it. The cluster M52 is not part of the scene: it sits roughly 5,000 light-years away, in front of the nebula, which is about twice as far.

This is a close-up from the same data as my Lobster Claw image, shown in the Foraxx palette: a blend of the same three gases (sulphur, hydrogen, oxygen) that lets hydrogen show warm red where there is little oxygen, and oxygen show cyan where it is strong, around the Bubble itself. The stars are their real colours, from separate red, green and blue exposures.

Acquisition

Telescope
Askar 80 — 386 mm, f/4.8
Camera
ZWO ASI2600MM Pro — gain 100, offset 50
Filters
Chroma 3 nm Ha / OIII / SII — Antlia V-Pro R / G / B for the star colour
Framing
1.256″/pixel (drizzle 1.6×), cropped from the Lobster Claw frame
Integration
Ha 247 × 180s, OIII 89 × 180s, SII 179 × 180s, RGB 45 × 60s = 26.5 hours — every sub reviewed by hand; 107 rejected
Dates
September 20–26, 2026 (five nights)
Location
My backyard site at The Star Farm in Camden, South Carolina — Bortle 4
Processing
Stacked in Siril, processed in PixInsight

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