The Eskimo or Clown Face Nebula (NGC 2392 and Caldwell 39) in Gemini is arguably the best planetary nebula within the winter sky. The Hubble House Telescope’s iconic picture from 2000 has featured closely in astronomy publications and on the Web, making the nebula some of the well-known and recognisable objects within the night time sky.
In contrast to a lot of Hubble’s spectacular portraits although, extra humble Earth-based devices resembling a pair of binoculars or a small telescope can observe it down and reveal a lot of the element that makes it such a gorgeous and tempting goal on lengthy winter evenings.
Methods to observe
Gemini lies excessive above the east-southeastern horizon by 7pm GMT. The acquainted one-two punch of its bright-star pairing of magnitude +1.6 Castor (alpha [α] Geminorum) and magnitude +1.1 Pollux (beta [β] Gem) make a great place to begin for finding the Eskimo. Ranging from Pollux, journey south-westwards alongside the physique of dual Pollux till you land on magnitude +3.5 Wasat (delta (δ) Geminorum), then transfer south by about 1.5 levels to reach at fifth-magnitude 56 Geminorum and eventually observe east by 1.75 levels and nudge barely north and it’s best to spy the nebula at RA 07h 29m 11s and Dec 20° 54’ 39”. The Eskimo culminates at about 9.30pm at a beneficial 60-degree altitude and stays on present till round 3am.
The nebula shines with an built-in magnitude of +9.2 and spans round 50 arcseconds, however its excessive floor brightness provides it an edge relating to in search of it by 10 × 50 binoculars. A telescope within the 80mm (~three inches) class when working at moderate- to high-magnification reveals the nebula’s interior core (~15 arcseconds throughout), which, beneath good situations and when near fruits, can look distinctly bluish-green.
It’s fainter and mottled outer halo, or ‘Parka hood’, can begin to be distinguished by maybe a 150mm (six-inch) telescope, however you’ll want a bigger aperture or an imaging rig to deliver out some hints of these irregularities which are so prevalent within the Hubble picture. The addition of an O-III filter will improve your viewing no matter telescope you’re utilizing.
