NGC 2899 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vela

Vela (constellation)

Vela is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for the sails of a ship, and it was originally part of a larger constellation, the ship Argo Navis, which was later divided into three parts, the others being Carina and Puppis.-Stars:...

 at a distance of nearly 6500 light years which lies in a moderate rich star zone. It was discovered by John Herschel

John Herschel

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS ,was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work...

 in 1835. If you will see an image you will find its structure is very unusual. Even its colour is unusual as 90% of planetary nebulae appears to be bluish or greenish in colour photos but this one is red

Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...

. The central star is invisible to all amateur telescopes.

External Links and Images

http://www.airglow.de/html/nebulae/ngc2899.html

http://www.blackskies.org/nsp12.htm

http://dg-imaging.astrodon.com/gallery/display.cfm?imgID=168

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009Ap&SS.tmp..115A

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~pchallis/gif/ngc2899.gif

http://www.deepskyobserving.com/NGC2899-VI.jpg