Celestron Origin and C11 Explore Cetus: Skull Nebula, M77, Darth Vader's Galaxy, and a NEW Supernova

0:00 Introduction
Music: Frederic Chopin – Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

0:14 Pixinsight Mosaic of Cetus
Cetus, known as the Sea Monster or the Whale, is the sixth-largest constellation. The brightest star in Cetus is Beta Ceti, also called Deneb Kaitos, which means "whale’s tail" in Arabic. Alpha Ceti, the second brightest star in the constellation, is also known as Menkar, which translates to "nostril" in Arabic.

0:28 NGC 1055 Edge-On Spiral Galaxy
NGC 1055 is a beautiful edge-on spiral galaxy.

0:44 NGC 157 Spiral Galaxy
NGC 157 is relatively bright, with a magnitude of 10.4. It’s interesting visually because it has well-defined spiral arms toward its core, but as they extend outward, they become discontinuous.

0:58 Supernova 2024abup
Type Ib/c Supernova 2024abup was discovered by ATLAS on November 22, 2024. NGC 681 is its host galaxy, and the supernova’s magnitude is 17.0. NGC 681 is an edge-on spiral galaxy. The supernova is in the galaxy’s dust lane, providing nice visual contrast.

1:13 Wolfe-Lundmark-Melotte Galaxy
Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM) is an irregular galaxy in the Local Group. It’s described as an isolated dwarf galaxy with minimal interaction with other galaxies. It appears to be a relatively large structure, measuring 10.4 x 3.5 arcminutes, but its surface brightness is low.

1:25 NGC 584, 428, 521 Galaxies
NGC 428 is a distorted spiral galaxy, likely due to galaxies colliding and merging. NGC 521 is a great example of a barred spiral galaxy.

1:40 Darth Vader's Galaxy
Growing up in the 70s and 80s, Star Wars significantly impacted my childhood. So, when I learned that Cetus has a galaxy named “Darth Vader’s Galaxy” or “Darth Vader’s Starfighter,” it immediately went to the top of my imaging list! It doesn’t disappoint either. It’s a beautiful lenticular (intermediate between elliptical and spiral) galaxy. Its bright nucleus, bar, and inner ring resemble a TIE fighter.

1:53 The Claw Galaxy
NGC 247 is also known as the Claw Galaxy or the Needle’s Eye Galaxy. Its distinctive feature is a large void on one side of the galaxy. This region is not empty but contains older, dimmer stars. Like WLM, it appears in the image as large with a low surface brightness.

2:06 NGC 1042 and 1052 Galaxies
NGC 1042 is a spiral galaxy, while NGC 1052 is elliptical. Along with the much smaller galaxies NGC 1047 and 1048, these four galaxies come together in one field of view to create a nice picture.

2:20 Mira Variable Star
Mira, meaning “wonderful” in Latin, was the first variable star to be discovered. It reaches a maximum magnitude of 3 and decreases to 10 over approximately 330 days. Because of this extreme variation in magnitude, the star fluctuates between visible and invisible, which is why it was named “wonderful.”

2:34 NGC 578 Galaxy
An interesting background galaxy (PGC 133775) is located just adjacent to the disk of NGC 578, toward the bottom left of my zoomed image.

2:48 NGC 210 Galaxy
I find NGC 210's ring-like appearance interesting. Wikipedia states that this galaxy is becoming a ring galaxy, which is thought to arise when a smaller galaxy collides with the center of a larger one. Its bright core indicates that it likely has an active galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole.

3:03 Hickson Compact Group #7
I imaged several of the Hickson Compact Groups in Cetus. On my rig and computer, I must admit that sometimes HCGs can be underwhelming. However, a few stand out, and my favorite of the bunch this time around is HCG #7, which contains a couple of nice spiral galaxies.

3:16 NGC 908, 337, 428, 151 Galaxies
NGC 908 is a spiral starburst galaxy. NGC 337 is a barred spiral galaxy; however, it’s hard for me to differentiate between the galaxy’s bar and its arms. NGC 428 is messed up, likely the result of a galactic merger! You can see the galaxy’s core, but its arms are undefined. NGC 151 is a barred spiral galaxy. It has what appears to be a void, like the Claw Galaxy.

3:33 Messier 77 Spiral Galaxy
Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy, Cetus A, and NGC 1068, is a beautiful prototype Seyfert 2 spiral galaxy with an active galactic nucleus. It is the closest Seyfert galaxy to the Milky Way. It is relatively bright, with a magnitude of 8.96, and relatively large, measuring roughly six by six arcminutes. It has an interesting appearance—it features a ring-like structure, but closer to its core, there are many loosely wound arms.

3:53 The Skull Planetary Nebula
Finally, we have NGC 246, commonly called the Skull Nebula. This planetary nebula is located just 1,600 light-years from Earth. With some imagination, you might see two eyes and a mouth within it. In my Origin image, the skull gazes down and to the left. The central star is a white dwarf, and several sources discuss how this nebula contains a rare triple stellar system at its core.

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