Object of the Week, February 3, 2019
NGC 2392, the Inuit Nebula
Planetary Nebula
Gemini
RA 07 29 10
DEC +20 54 42
Magnitude 10.1 (v)
Size: 48” x 48”
Discovered by William Herschel, 1787
I picked NGC 2392 as this weeks OOTW for two reasons – first because it hasn’t been the subject of a previous OOTW (as far as I can tell) and second because of how it was conspicuously not referred to as the Eskimo Nebula, its well-known nickname, in Sue French’s’ Deep Sky Wonders article in the March edition of Sky & Telescope magazine. An incredibly detailed sketch by Serge Vieillard is featured in the article.
It was only called out as NGC 2392, but was described in terms that made it obvious how it got its nickname: "On some images, the brightness variations near the central star resemble facial features, while the fringe looks like the fur of a parka's hood." This was also the case in Steve Gottlieb’s S&T article a few years ago when he wrote about this famous planetary nebula.
The Inuit People of the Canadian and Greenland arctic consider “Eskimo” a pejorative term (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo) - an excellent reason to stop calling NGC 2392 the Eskimo Nebula, and good for Steve, Sue French and S&T for stopping the practice. Because the Inuit people prefer to be called Inuit, I’m going with that rather than ignore the nickname altogether. NGC 2392 is too big, bright and well-known to lose a distinctive nickname. In my opinion, calling it the Inuit Nebula going forward is both respectful and logical.
What do you think?
Visually, the Inuit Nebula can be a stunning sight in even a modest size telescope, but the bigger the better. I’ll present two observations here, one with my 28-inch scope and one with the 90-inch Bok telescope on Kitt Peak. My observing notes were made before I was aware of the Inuit’s objection to the term Eskimo, so I’ve substituted the name Inuit here.
28-inch
“Holy smoke, this is by far the finest view of the Inuit ever – Chuck (Dethloff) could hardly believe it too! The sketch was made at 654x and the blue-green color was still evident, especially with my right eye. The OIII and UHC filters made the nebula brighter but brought out no additional details.” February 2005
28_inch_Inuit Nebula_crop.jpg 28_inch_Inuit Nebula_cropinvert.jpg
90-inch
“Now this is some nice eye candy! The sketch shows the basic features – the gap in the inner annulus, which Dan (Gray) has dubbed “the Mouth”, the dark perimeter exterior to that annulus, the slightly off-center central star, and a dim thin annulus halfway to the outer perimeter with a couple of condensations. The inner annulus has a distinctive turquoise color, but unsaturated. There’s a slight hint of the same color throughout the entire planetary nebula – beautiful! 660x, 21.50 SQM.” April 2010
90-inchInuitNebula_crop.jpg 90-inchInuitNebula_cropinvert.jpg
I’ve always had difficulty star hopping to the Inuit Nebula, and it usually takes me more than one attempt to get in the eyepiece – anyone else have that experience? It’s always worth the effort though, even in lousy seeing, because the color is so rich at low power.
"Give it a go and let us know"
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