NGC 1501 is an intersting PN in Giraffe constellation, so it has an high declination. This medium-sized nebula needs low light polluted skies because of its low surface magnitude. It's shape is regular, slightly elliptical in E-W direction and with two bright archs in N-S direction. Its irregular inner structure, revealed photographically and full of lights-and-shades, make presuppose a strongly irregular distribution of gases. Central star is only visible with large telescopes, and it doesn't disturb the observation.
Phisically this is an highly excited nebula, and that's because the central star has a temperature of 110000 K approximately. Although, presence of low-potential ionic species has been confirmed. Structurarly it's made of a single cocoon, in its turn characterized by the presence of four minor lobes, interesting for new 3D tehniques to study.
Interesting level: * |
