2025-03-19 / Click on image to enlarge
galacticsights
astrophotography
Headphone Nebula, PK 164+31.1
Technical Details
| Location | Zollikerberg, Switzerland |
| Camera | Nikon DSLR D810A |
| Telescope | TS ONTC 12" f/4 Carbon Newton |
| Optics | TS 2,5" Wynne Coma Corrector |
| Focal Length | 1140mm |
| Mount | iOptron CEM120 Center-Balanced Equatorial Mount |
| Autoguiding | MGEN3 (Dithering) |
| Focuser | Moonlite Nitecrawler |
| Image Session Control | APT - Astro Photography Tool, ASCOM Platform |
| Lights | 53 x 120s (total 1h46'), ISO-800, additional Biases, Flats, no Darks |
| Stacking Software | Pixinsight, Drizzle 2x |
| Image Processing | Pixinsight |
The planetary nebula Jones-Emberson 1 (JnEr 1, PK 164+31.1) was discovered in 1939 by the American astronomers Rebecca Jones and Richard M. Emberson on photo plates of the Harvard Observatory. Because of its appearance, the nebula is also nicknamed Headphone Nebula. The designation PK 164+31.1 comes from the two Czechoslovak astronomers Luboš Perek and Luboš Kohoutek, who in 1967 compiled a catalog of all the planetary nebulae of the Milky Way known at the time.
The Headphone Nebuala is a 13,000 year old planetary nebula. It’s about 1600 light years away and 4 light years across, and is the outer layers of a star at the end of its life. What remains of the star now is the nebula and a bluish shimmering white dwarf in the centre of the nebula. This white dwarf is giving off vast amounts of energy, which is ionising the gas cloud and heating it up, causing it to glow.