Planetary Nebula NGC 7354
History
This nebula was discovered on 3 November 1787 by the German-British astronomer William Herschel. He cataloged it as «faint nebula» with entry II 705 and noted: «Pretty bright, small, irregularly round, almost equally bright.» [464] His son John observed the on 9 October 1829, cataloged it as h 2178 and noted: «Bright enough to be noticed and caught in sweeping in full moonlight, with the moon on meridian, pretty gradually brighter in the middle, round, no nucleus seen.» [466] In his «General Catalogue» published 1864 the nebula is listed with the designation GC 4827. [467]
Lord Rosse (or more likely one of his assistants) suspected the nebula to be a planetary in 1861. [486] John L. E. Dreyer added then the nebula as NGC 7354 in his 1888 «New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters. [313]
Physical Properties
Winds from the central star are believed to play an important role in the shape of planetary nebulae. The composition of NGC 7354 is relatively easy to distinguish: the PN consists of a spherical outer envelope, an ellipsoidal inner envelope, a collection of bright knots concentrated in the center, and two symmetrical jets shooting gas into the interstellar medium on either side. It is believed that these properties were caused by a companion star of the central star, but its presence has not yet been confirmed. The distance to NGC 7354 is about 4200 light years. [350]
| Designations | PN G107.8+02.3: NGC 7354, PK 107+02.1, ARO 55, VV 278, VV' 567 |
| Right Ascension (J2000.0) | 22h 40m 20s |
| Declination (J2000.0) | +61° 17' 06" |
| Dimensions | 23." (optical) |
| Distance | 1.5 kpc |
| Radial Velocity | -41.0 ± 2.0 km/s |
| Expansion Velocity | 25.0 (O-III) 27. (N-II) km/s |
| C-Star Designations | AG82 445 |
| C-Star Magnitude | V: >16.2 |
| Discoverer | LORD ROSSE 1862 |
Finder Chart
The planetary nebula NGC 7354 is located in the constellation Cepheus. The best viewing time is May to December when the constellation is highest in the night sky.
