Lemon Slice Nebula

IC 3568 is a planetary nebula that is 1.3 kiloparsecs (4500 ly) away from Earth in the constellation of Camelopardalis (just 7.5 degrees from Polaris).

It was dubbed the Lemon Slice Nebula by Jim Kaler, due to its appearance in one false-colour image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The core of the nebula does not have a distinctly visible structure in formation and is mostly composed of ionized helium.

[6] IC 3568 was discovered on August 31, 1900[7] by the American astronomer Robert Grant Aitken while using Lick Observatory's 12" Clark Refractor.

While examining Comet Borrelly-Brooks, he found that the star BD +83° 357 in Camelopardalis is surrounded by a small circular nebula.

False color image of the bright central region of IC 3568. This is the image that gave the nebula its common name.