It was discovered by William Herschel on March 4, 1790. He described it as "a beautiful planetary nebula of a considerable degree of brightness, not very well defined."[3] The nebula is located about 1.23 kiloparsecs (3.79×1019 m) or about 4,000 light years from the Sun.[2]
HD 62166
The central star HD 62166 has an exceptionally high surface temperature of about 200,000 kelvins[2] and a luminosity 1,100 times that of the Sun.[4] This dense star, with an estimated 0.6 solar mass and 0.028 solar radius,[4] has an apparent magnitude of 17.5.[5]
