Medusa - generally described as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone. Well, not so true for this Medusa….

This Medusa is a planetary nebula (no, no planets in a planetary nebula) that is about 1,500 light years away (right around the time the Chinese invented gun powder…). It is really faint – so much that is was not discovered until 1955. It lies in the constellation of Gemini. The braided filaments of the shell the star shed during its red giant phase resemble the serpents that comprise the hair of the mythical character Medusa. I do believe an adult beverage or two was consumed while naming this one….

This was taken mid-December and is 30 x 300 second exposures – 2.5 hours’ worth of exposures. This target will disappear below the horizon in April, but I hope to get another 3 or 4 hours of imaging in on it.