At low magnification, N44 dazzles one with light; it’s a striking field of masses of bright stars and H II regions. Its vast cavity is filled with OB association LH 47’s stars, and they appear as if they are pouring out over the surrounding nebulosity to the west and northwest. The other two OB associations glitter on the cavity’s northeastern and southern peripheries. Beautiful globs of bright, glowing nebulosity lie around the cavity’s sides, bar the eastern side where it appears open. More nebulosity lies to the south, all of it glowing with every nuance of light from bright to faint, all of it gorgeous.

N44, full of shimmering and glittering light. Credit: NASA, ESA, V. Ksoll and D. Gouliermis (Universität Heidelberg), et al.

In 1953, McKibben Nail & Shapley designated NGC 1935 as the identifier of Constellation I, a massive 26′ x 26′ in size. (I confess to being hopeless at asterisms… but when I blur my eyes and sharpen my imagination, Constellation I resembles the long-snouted face of the aardvark one sees lumbering around at night in the Kalahari slurping up ants with its long tongue.)

16″ at 228x: Responsible for blowing the vast cavity through the ferocious lives and deaths of its massive OB members, LH 47’s glorious cloud of stars not only fills its vast self-blown cavity, but also streams away from the cavity to the west and northwest, flowing into the surrounding nebulosity. Around 20 or so mag 13 and fainter stars are resolved, and they appear even more beautiful as they are set against both the lovely glow of unresolved stars in the cavity, and the bright nebulosity into which they pour. The richness of the huge cavity’s periphery, that sweeps in bright nebulosity and stars from its northeastern side clockwise all the way to its southwestern side, highlights the openness of its eastern side. However, with the UHC filter and averted vision, a very faint and most delicate and diaphanous strand, nothing more than a couple of unconnected and very small, finely spun wisps, is revealed, oriented N-S. The southern end of the strand, where it curves westwards is exceedingly faint, just one very small and very thin piece of a wisp, barely seen, even with averted vision.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: NGC 1934 doesn’t stand out well at all, especially with all its exceedingly bright and glitzy neighbours. It appears as a faint, almost translucent oval of nebulosity, ~1′ in size and oriented NNW-SSE. It is studded with half a dozen mag 13 and fainter stars, with ionising OB star HD 269412, a lovely mag 11.9 spark, lying at its south-southwest end. It has no discernible edges, the nebulosity just fades away into the dark.

A planetary nebula is one of the few objects I observe that allow me to get a slim grasp on the unfathomable time scales we encounter in astronomy. It is impossible to comprehend the sheer scale of time that spans the lives of stars, galaxies, the universe itself. However, when I observe a planetary nebula, I can wrap my head around its lifespan because the planetary nebula phase is brief, its fluorescent light lasts for only about 10,000 years before the cast-off shroud of the dead star becomes so distended that it slowly fades from view, with only the blindingly hot white dwarf and whatever planets it might still possess left to soldier on. Ten thousand years fits relatively easily into human time scales. Roughly 10,000 years ago, Earth was leaving the Ice Age and not long after, agriculture started to develop around the world and humans began to shift away from hunting and gathering… a shift that had such profound changes on human bodies, minds and culture that its development has been dubbed the “Neolithic Revolution.” 

16″ at 228x + OIII filter: It is extraordinary to be able to see a planetary nebula in another galaxy! And this one is a little beauty, albeit exceedingly small. Without the filter, it appears as a mag 14.2 star; a small spark of light, lying among a multitude of fainter sparks of light. However, it had a tremendous response to the OIII filter. It lost its star-like spark and albeit still star-sized, it displayed not a stellar spark, but that soft, silky glow, the colour of a tiny droplet of moonlight, that is unmistakably “not a star” and which all the LMC planetary nebulae that I observed display.

16″ at 228x: NGC 1935 and NGC 1936, which lies just to its southeast, form a striking pair, both of them bright and remarkably similar, although NGC 1935 is marginally smaller. Without a filter it is a lovely bright, round glow. It has a fantastic response to the UHC, appearing as a very bright, round glow, ~30″ in diameter, superbly smooth and silky, and with well-defined edges that seem to make it pop from its already stunning location. The stars of cluster SL 417 appear as if they are crowding its northern shore. Very pretty!

NGC 1936 is on the left, and NGC 1935 is on the right. Credit: ESO/Hubble

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: NGC 1936 bears a striking resemblance to NGC 1935, only it’s marginally larger. Like NGC 1935, it appears bright and round without a filter, and it also has a fantastic response to the UHC filter, appearing very bright, round, 35″ in diameter, and with beautifully smooth and glossy nebulosity, and well-defined edges that allow it to stand out in its striking location. On the western edge of the nebula an extremely faint and wispy strand of nebulosity connects it to a very faint, small and smudgy patch of nebulosity (which rather oddly, appears to be nameless).

16″ at 228x:  SL 417 is a lovely gathering of stars lying within the rich nebulosity, appearing as roughly a dozen or so mag 13 and fainter stars clustered around the northern end of NGC 1935. They have the lovely appearance of seeming to disappear into NGC 1935’s rich nebulosity.

16″ at 228x: LH 49 is located at the southeast end of the N44 complex, in the company of a lovely little selection of nebulae within close proximity (indeed, this southern end of the superbubble is most intriguing). The stellar association appears as a dozen scattered mag 13-14.5 stars set against the enticing mistiness of almost-resolved stars, in an area ~2.5′ in diameter. Mag 9.7 HD 35978 lies off N44D’s northeast shore. The association is immersed in a faint, irregularly round haze of nebulosity with a brighter patch of nebulosity at the southeast end.

N44 D has an excellent contrast gain with the UHC filter. The brighter and irregularly-shaped patch on the southeast side has a beautifully smooth, pearly aspect, with a well-defined southeast edge where the nebulosity ends abruptly. Its other edges are embedded in the fainter mist of nebulosity that fans outwards towards the north and west in an irregularly round patch that thins out on its edges until it fades from view. (It was discovered by Solon Bailey on Harvard plates in 1896.)

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: This H II region appears as a moderately bright, round and smooth glow, ~15″ in diameter and with crisp edges.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: N44F is an absolute stunner! Were I asked what I think the quintessential interstellar bubble blown by an O-type star would look like, this is it! It is ~40″ in diameter and appears round and bright, with the most beautifully well-defined edges. It is filled with a glossy, silken glow that belies the ferocity of a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a hot young star. And it certainly is a treat to see, unfiltered, the mag 13 O-type bubble-blowing star! Indeed, it’s an incredible treat to see such a rare object… never mind in a neighbouring galaxy!

The quintessential interstellar bubble. Credit: NASA, ESA, Y. Nazé (University of Liège, Belgium)

Interestingly, photos taken by Hubble Space Telescope revealed the interior wall of the bubble’s gaseous cavity is lined with several finger-like columns of cool dust and gas, four to eight light-year high, and similar to M16’s iconic “Pillars of Creation”. How nice to know they are there when one observes this little treasure!

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: N44H appears as a fairly bright, compact, round glow, ~20″ in diameter, and whose edges are undefined and melt away into the darkness. Without the filter, a small bright little star is embedded in the nebulosity.

16″ at 228x: Lying on the north-eastern periphery of the superbubble’s cavity, this really is a fascinating object with the gorgeous stars of  stars of LH 48 scattered around within a large oval of SNR nebulosity ~3.2′ x 2.2′ in size! Stars first… about a dozen are resoved, most noticeable being a string of stars oriented WSW-ENE that runs through the centre of the diminutive star cloud, and includes a lovely mag 11.5 star towards its WSW end. They really are stunning embedded as they are within the glow of the SNR J0523-6753 which, without a filter, appears of subtly varying intensity. It has very soft edges that simply fade away into the sky, except for a quite nicely defined edge along its west-southwest edge where it appears to be attached to the superbubble’s cavity. There is an excellent contrast gain with the OIII filter – the varying intensity of the nebulosity appears as  disorderly patches of uneven, pearly light. The edges appear to be somewhat better defined and the nebulosity fades away into the background without any defined edges,

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: This isolated bubble lies a considerable way north of the rest of the superbubble. It is wonderful to see an interstellar bubble, albeit there isn’t much to see! It appears as a very faint, round droplet of misty light, ~10″ in diameter and with no discernible edges, the misty glow just fades away into the sky. Unfiltered, no sign of the O-type star responsible for the bubble, which in the image lies dead centre, but the misty glow is very, very slightly brighter to its centre.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: Lying to the west to the west of IC 2128, N44K appears as a round patch of faint, misty nebulosity, ~20″ in diameter with no edges – the round glow simply dissolves away, except for N44G that appears as a very small, brighter knot embedded on its southern edge. Mag 9.2 HD 35862 lies to the west.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: An exceedingly small and exceedingly faint dash of averted vision nebulosity that lies west of N44E… one of those objects only picked up because one knows where to look, and roughly what to expect to see.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: This interstellar bubble is exceedingly faint; averted vision allowed me to catch it and it appeared as little more than the smallest and faintest round glow, just barely there, and with no sign of the O-type star.

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: Lying just south of a mag 11.4 star, N44N is so faint that it is invisible.

16″ at R99 is one of the most luminous stars known. It lies to the southeast of N44H. It is embedded in nebulosity but it is washed out by the star. Looking at the gorgeously white star, knowing it is reaching the end of its brilliant life and is going to blow up in the not-so-distant future, is a great way to end a visit to this magnificent superbubble.