VBRC2 with Extended Halo

VBRC2 with Extended Halo

Planetary Nebula in Vela

Constellation: Vela
Ra: 9hr 31m 21s
Dec: -56d 17m 40s
Distance: 3,900 light years
Image Size: 11' x 11'
North: Up; East Left

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Description

VBRC2 is an evolved planetary nebula in the southern constellation of Vela, discovered as a planetary nebula by van den Bergh et  al. in 1973, about 3,900 light years distant.  The white dwarf (small central  blue star) is shown in the image.  The nebula is also referred to as Wray 17-31, ESO 166-PN-21 and  RCW 44.  The bright portion of the nebula is circular and about 2.5′ in diameter.  North is up and East is left.  The deep narrowband data also detected an extended halo present in both OIII and [H-a + NII] that expands the size to about 4′.  The internal structure has elongated cloudy structures, and shows a resemblance to my narrowband image of Abell 7.  The central white dwarf DAO (hydrogen/helium-rich displaying Helium ionization) star is one of the hottest and most evolved known for a planetary nebula.  This image is the first to clearly show the extended halo structure, which was discovered by the Galactic Planetary Nebula Halo Survey (GPNHS) team in August, 2014.   A 27′ x 27′ expanded image is shown below.

Published in Astronomy, June 2016, p. 71

Exposure: 15 hrs Total: 8.5hrs H-a, 4.5hrs OIII, 2 hrs RGB
Telescope: PlaneWave CDK20 0.5 m f/6.8 reflector
Mount: PlaneWave Ascension 200h
Oag: Astrodon MonsterMOAG
Acquisition: ACP Expert 8
Calibration: CCDStack2
Observatory Site: iTelescope.net, Siding Spring, NSW, Australia
Camera: SBIG STX16803
Filters: Astrodon 5 nm H-a, 3 nm OIII, Gen 2 RGB
Guider: SBIG St-i
Camera Operation: MaximDL: 4.24
Processing: Photoshop cc 2015
Image Date: 01/16/2016 - 02/08/2016

1 Comment

  1. Sakib

    I love this halo! I wish I could see it imaged at higher resolution.

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