NGC 246 Skull Nebula Captured from Pearly Bea...
NGC 246 (also known as the Skull Nebula or Caldwell 56) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cetus (The Whale), discovered by William Herschel in 1785.
Join us for an evening under the stars at Pearly Beach from around 20:00 onwards on Saturday 17 March. Three of the targets on the evening will be one of the brightest and largest of the globular clusters, Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), and just a stone throw away the peculiar galaxy NGC 5128, also known as radio source Centaurus A. Lying about 15 million light years from us, this giant elliptical galaxy is crossed by a band of dark dust. It is one of the strongest sources known to radio astronomers, who have detected lobes of radio emissions on either side of the galaxy. Sandwiched between zeta 1 and zeta 2 Centauri lies NGC 4945, a barred spiral galaxy situated around 11 million light years from us.
Southern Cape Astronomy Club meets at least once a month for stargazing or observation evenings close to new Moon or during astronomical related events. The well-established club is based in Pearly Beach just outside Gansbaai.
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Read MoreNGC 246 (also known as the Skull Nebula or Caldwell 56) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cetus (The Whale), discovered by William Herschel in 1785.
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Just a quick stack of a few DSO's from the early hours on Sunday morning (11/10/2026).
Three images with an S30 Pro on EQ mode from last night (04/1/2026).
With the Moon out of the way and weather improving somewhat, there was a few hours gap last night for collecting a few photons.
We've had some good weather the last couple of weeks; here are a few astro images.