Starship Asterisk*

Xiong wrote: I object to the characterization of HAL as a villain, at the same rank as the Terminator. The HAL 9000 installed in Discovery was originally trained with scientific ends in mind; its most basic design philosophy revolved around truth and cooperation with its human partners. The faceless...

I realize that saying it has a bow tie shape is not the same as calling it the Bow Tie (or Bow-Tie) Nebula. But I've also seen pictures of NGC 40, and I struggle to identify anything resembling a bowtie in those fuzzy pictures. But NGC 2440 clearly has that shape. Whoever decides on these names shou...

And so does this site:

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag ... 70214.html

This site also associates the name Bow Tie Nebula with the designation NGC 2440:

http://www.skyimagelab.com/bowtie.html

I realize that the APOD of NGC 2440 does not come right out and say that it's the Bow-Tie Nebula. But this site does just that: http://www.nasa.gov/lb/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_761.html I tend to be distrustful of the government, but NASA has not been known to outright lie or fabricate o...

The APOD of February 15, 2007, displays the planetary nebula known as the Bow-Tie Nebula, and gives its catalog number as NGC 2440. But a Google search also comes up with several sites that give the catalog number as NGC 40. Which is correct? Can they both be right?

Thanks, that's just what I was looking for.

I realize that the Veil Nebula is in fact cataloged as several discrete NGC items. The picture shown on APOD on March 07 1996: Rampaging Fronts of the Veil Nebula is clearly a blown-up image of a tiny fraction. But of which component of the Veil? Can anybody out there enlighten me?