Cat's Eye Nebula

Here is the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) as seen in visible light using the 200-inch Hale Telescope. This animated gif cycles between the standard visible-light view which is blurred by Earth's atmosphere and a corrected image using Palomar's Adaptive Optics System and an instrument known as LuckyCam.

The Cat's Eye Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula - an expanding cloud of gas given off by a dying star. It is located about 3,300 light years in the direction of the constellation of Draco.

The image of the Cat's Eye Nebula, 20 arcseconds on a side, is a false-color combination of three wavelengths of light. The green light is mostly 500nm oxygen emission, red light from H-alpha hydrogen emission and blue color which has contributed by near-infrared (I-band) light.