NGC 2346 - Butterfly Nebula
NGC 2346 is a planetary nebula (PN) in the constellation Unicorn (Monoceros), which is around 4,800 light-years away from Earth and bears the catchy
name "Butterfly Nebula". It was discovered in March 1790 by F.W. Herschel. With an apparent brightness of 9.6mag and a size of around 50", it is easy
to see even in smaller telescopes.
The nebula has a bipolar structure with a total length of 4 light-years, with the envelope moving outwards at a speed of 8...11 km/s. It is stimulated to glow
by the hard UV radiation of the central star. The mass of the PN is given as 0.34 to 1.85 solar masses.
The central star is a double star where the two components orbit each other once every 16 days.
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NGC 2346 appears in my 20" f/3.2 telescope as a bright disk with a very bright central star. The nebular envelope fades outwards linearly and appears oval
with an elongation of 1.5-2:1. At a magnification of 270x, no particularly striking structures were visible.
Quite nice, but also somehow a bit boring ;)
