Ghost of Jupiter

==Overview==
The Ghost of Jupiter, also categorized as NGC 3242, is a planetary nebula situated in the constellation of Hydra, and its approximated distance to Earth in light-years is about 1399.21 light-years. NGC 3242 has an estimated diameter of about 1.82 light-years, although some estimates conclude that it is much higher or lower than that. The inner region of the Ghost of Jupiter has a young age of roughly 1,500 years, and the outer layers have a much older age of approximately 100,000 years.https://books.google.com.my/books?id=amPrWoOWgHcC&pg=PA128&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
== Naming origin ==
It got its name due to the appearance of a planet in our Solar System, Jupiter, which in modern-day observations, looks nothing like the planet Jupiter. This is due to early astronomers not having advanced telescopes as the technology in the past is limited to basic telescopes that produced blurry images that early astronomers misinterpreted as the planet Jupiter, and hence, the name stuck to the 21st century and likely will stay in the future. How the name originated is unknown, but it's probable that Robert Burnham coined the name "Ghost of Jupiter" to refer to this nebula. https://oneminuteastronomer.com/1460/ghost-jupiter/
== Observational history ==
The Ghost of Jupiter was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 7th of February, 1785, and categorized as H IV.27.http://spider.seds.org/spider/Misc/n3242.html Herschel described it as follows: “Beautiful, brilliant, planetary disk ill defined, but uniformly bright, the light of the colour Jupiter… 1′ in diameter”. In the 1830s, John Herschel observed the Ghost of Jupiter from a location on Earth called Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. John Herschel designated it as h 3248 and included it as GC 2102 in the 1864 General Catalogue. The Ghost of Jupiter is designated in the New General Catalogue as NGC 3242 by J.L.E. Dreyer. Over a century later, the diligent amateur Admiral William Smyth commented that this stunning object "resembles Jupiter from its size, equable light, and color."
== Amateur observation ==
The Ghost of Jupiter is best observed from January to March in the southern hemisphere. The nebulae is quite popular and can be easily seen in basic telescopes for amateur astronomers because it has a large apparent magnitude of about 0°04'29.25" and a bright apparent magnitude of 8ᵐ60.
==Gallery==
File:Ghost of Jupiter-001.png
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Category:Real objects
Category:Objects
Category:Nebulae