NGC 6543, also known as The Cat's Eye Nebule,
is a planetary nebula in Draco.
The core of NGC 6543 is about 0.2 ly across
and the nebula is about 3.3 kly from us.
Hover over the image for an annotated view.
Date: 21 to 23 June 2025
FOV: cropped to 20' × 13' 20"
Telescope: Orion 180mm Mak-Cass (2590mm, f/14, nominally 2700mm, f/15)
Guiding: ZWO ASI120MM mini mono guide camera,
SVBony SV165 Mini 40mm f/4 guide scope
Computer: ASIair pro Raspberry Pi
Mount: iOptron CEM40
Camera: ZWO ASI071MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS gain 90
Pixel size: 4.78 μm
Resolution: 0.393 arcsec/pixel
Filter: none
Frames: one hundred eighty-four 240 second subs
Total Time: 12 hours and 16 minutes
Calibration: 20 flats, 20 dark flats, and 20 darks
Processing: Pixinsight – SPCC, DBE, SPCC, BlurXT, NoiseXT → Linear
MStr, GHS, HST, PMath MStr + GHS + HST → Stars, Sat,
StarXT, MStr, GHS, HST, PMath MStr + GHS + HST → Starless, Sat,
PMath ~(~Stars*~Starless) → Blend, scale
Location: Cherry Springs State Park near Coudersport, PA
