Abell 78 Planetary Nebula in Cygnus
Published 22 Nov 2020
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About this object
Abell 78 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It rather faint and about 2 arc minutes in size. It lies 2,300 light years distant. The following description is courtesy of NOAO.edu: This planetary nebula has the unusual property of having a faint outer halo composed of normal stellar material (mostly hydrogen) and a bright inner elliptical ring composed mostly of helium. The helium ring provides direct confirmation that hydrogen is being converted to helium in the centers of stars and can later be ejected back into the galaxy's pool of gas for building another generation of enriched stars. It was discovered by George Abell in 1966.
I started imaging this at the Eldorado Star Party in Oct where I took the LRGB exposures. Once home, I completed the narrow band exposures through Ha and OIII filters. The image is comprised of 2.96hrs of broadband data and 23.75hrs of narrow band data taken through a Stellarvue SVX152T 6" refractor and ASI6200 camera. The image is cropped showing only the area around the nebula.
Abell 78 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It rather faint and about 2 arc minutes in size. It lies 2,300 light years distant. The following description is courtesy of NOAO.edu: This planetary nebula has the unusual property of having a faint outer halo composed of normal stellar material (mostly hydrogen) and a bright inner elliptical ring composed mostly of helium. The helium ring provides direct confirmation that hydrogen is being converted to helium in the centers of stars and can later be ejected back into the galaxy's pool of gas for building another generation of enriched stars. It was discovered by George Abell in 1966.
I started imaging this at the Eldorado Star Party in Oct where I took the LRGB exposures. Once home, I completed the narrow band exposures through Ha and OIII filters. The image is comprised of 2.96hrs of broadband data and 23.75hrs of narrow band data taken through a Stellarvue SVX152T 6" refractor and ASI6200 camera. The image is cropped showing only the area around the nebula.
Image Details
- Optics : Stellarvue SVX 152 refractor @f6 900mm FL
- Mount: Paramount MYT
- Camera: ZWO ASI6200
- Filters: Chroma 50mm LRGBOIII, Astrodon 50mm 5nm Ha
- Exposure (min): LRGBHaOIII 48:48:43:40:660:765 26.7hrs, 2x2 binning
- Camera/Mount Control: The Sky X, Voyager
- Guiding: StarlightXpress Lodestar X2
- Processing: PixInsight 1.8, PS CC
- Location: Eldorado Star Party (RGB) Stark Bayou Observatory, Ocean Springs, MS (Ha,OIII)
- Sky: Eldorado: Bortle 1-2 (Dark) Home: Typical SQM 19.6-20.1, Bortle 5, Suburban
- Date: LRGB: 16-17 Oct 20, HaOIII: 19 Oct-2 Nov 20
