Other Names: The PacMan Nebula
Optics: Borg Astrograph 101ED at f/4.1
Mount: Atlas EQG using The Sky6 and EQMOD
Camera: Canon EOS 50D [ UV/IR filter modification by Hap Griffin ]
Filters: IDAS Light Pollution Suppression (LPS) Filter
Exposure: 120 Mins [24 x 300s at ISO 800]
Accessories: Auto guided with Borg 45ED and Orion Starshoot Auto guider using PHD
Location: Calgary, AB
Date: October 29th, 2010
Notes: Processing: Image acquisition with Maxim DSLR. Image calibration, align, and combine in Maxim DSLR. Levels, curves, Noise Ninja, StarSpikes Pro, crop and resize in Photoshop.
Calibrated w/35 Darks, 40 Bias, 40 Flats using light box Ambient temperature was between +4.8 and +1.5C

NGC 281 is an H II region in the constellation of Cassiopeia and part of the Perseus Spiral Arm. It includes the open cluster IC 1590, the multiple star HD 5005, and several Bok globules. Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character.
The nebula was discovered in August 1883 by E. E. Barnard, who described it as "a large faint nebula, very diffuse." The multiple star HD 5005, also called β1, was discovered by S. W. Burnham. It consists of an 8th-magnitude primary with four companions at distances between 1.4 and 15.7 seconds of arc. There has been no appreciable change in this quintuple system since the first measurements were made in 1875.
The nebula is visible in amateur telescopes from dark sky locations. In his book Deep Sky Wonders, Walter Scott Houston describes the appearance of the nebula in small telescopes:[3]