NGC 2899 Bipolar PNe in Vela

NGC 2899 is a bipolar planetary nebula (PNe) in the southern constellation of Vela. Although the bright core is small, extremely faint lobes were found 10.7′ either side of the central nebula, probably making it one of the largest and perhaps closest PNe to the Sun based upon the AAO/UKST H-a survey. Their image is presented below (Parker, Q.A and Phillipps, S. "The AAO/UKST H-alpha Survey and the Discovery of a Rich Vein of Planetary Nebulae", The New Era of Wide Field Astronomy, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 232. Edited by Roger Clowes, Andrew Adamson, and Gordon Bromage. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific. ISBN: 1-58381-065-X, p.38) and a link can be accessed here) :

Only the Helix Nebula has a larger, projected angular size if these faint, extended lobes are considered. This places the extent of these faint lobe on the right side of NGC 2899 above and to the right of the bright blue star near the right side of the image above. One study determined that NGC 2899 has an orientation of 80 deg, nearly perpendicular to our line of site, thus showing the bipolar characteristics clearly. It is an evolved type 1 high excitation PNe.

My image has been cropped to better show the PNe and is 23′ wide with North up. Seeing was very good during data acquisitoin (<2"). Upon close inspection, there are two central stars in the core, but it is uncertain if either one is the proginator star. It reminds me of the bipolar shape of PNe PLN36-1.1 in the northern hemisphere.