« Back to Gallery

Shapley 1 by Damian Peach

Submitted by Planewave Instruments

CDK700 (28″)  @ F6.8. FLI camera. L: 60mins. RGB: 5mins.

Shapley 1 (Sp 1 or PLN 329+2.1) is an annular planetary nebula in the constellation of Norma with a magnitude of +12.6. As viewed from Earth, it is peculiar in that it seems to be a non-bipolar, torus-shaped planetary nebula.Discovered in 1936 by Harlow Shapley, it is approximately 1,000 light years from Earth. At the centre of the nebula is a magnitude 14 white dwarf star.It has an angular diameter of 1.1 arc minutes,which makes it about one-third (.32) of a light year across.