Bean Nebula | NGC 1763 | N11b
Despite what people may think, the “beans” in the Bean Nebula are not actual beans. Rather, they are regions of highly ionized and reflective gas formed by star clusters. Young, hot stars in the cluster heat up the surrounding gas, making it glow in the shape of a kidney bean! This nebula is an active star forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the most famous satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.
Imaged in BVR filters for approximately 6 hours, using 100-second exposures taken over October 16th and 17th, 2025.
The two photos were processed independently by Alex and Andrea, to show the different results you can achieve with the same data. This highlights the subjectivity of post-processing and the creativity involved in astrophotography!
You can find more of our astrophotography here
