PN Abell 80

The planetary nebula Abell 80, AKA PN G102.8-05.0, is located in Lacerta. The only distance estimate I found for it puts it at 1.9 kpc (6,200 light-years). http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//...00624.000.html Visually it is very faint with reports of seeing it in a 16 being about a 50-50 deal. While it is often described as being a ring I get more of a sense of a cylinder tilted downward (north up). This would explain why the sides are strong but the top and bottom rather weak. Also the weak top and bottom areas are about the same length as the bright side regions.

Color images I found on the net failed to show the very faint, very blue, central star. Most likely because they used H alpha for the luminance data. This one was so faint I did have to augment the image with H alpha data but I used only LRGB data for the stars in order to not lose the central star. The center hole has a slight blue cast probably due to OIII emission that is often seen in the center of ring planetaries. Not having an OIII filter I can't say for sure.

14" LX200R @ f/10, Ha=3x30' L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick

Rick,

this PN looks like a 3D band winding through space in your image.
It is on my list but it looks like I have not imaged it so far.

Stefan


"WA0CKY" schrieb im Newsbeitrag ...


The planetary nebula Abell 80, AKA PN G102.8-05.0, is located in
Lacerta. The only distance estimate I found for it puts it at 1.9 kpc
(6,200 light-years). http://tinyurl.com/n3c5sdq Visually it is very
faint with reports of seeing it in a 16 being about a 50-50 deal. While
it is often described as being a ring I get more of a sense of a
cylinder tilted downward (north up). This would explain why the sides
are strong but the top and bottom rather weak. Also the weak top and
bottom areas are about the same length as the bright side regions.

Color images I found on the net failed to show the very faint, very
blue, central star. Most likely because they used H alpha for the
luminance data. This one was so faint I did have to augment the image
with H alpha data but I used only LRGB data for the stars in order to
not lose the central star. The center hole has a slight blue cast
probably due to OIII emission that is often seen in the center of ring
planetaries. Not having an OIII filter I can't say for sure.

14" LX200R @ f/10, Ha=3x30' L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount
ME

Rick


--
WA0CKY