2 new planetary nebula candidate discoveries PaTal 1 and PaTal 2
Published 3 November 2025
We are excited to share the discoveries of two new planetary nebula candidates. Patchick-Talbot 1 (PaTal 1) and Patchick-Talbot 2 (PaTal 2) in a rich area of the summer constellation Vulpecula. In 2019, Dana Patchick reviewed IPHAS H-alpha survey plates looking for potential planetary nebula that were missed in earlier surveys. He found an extremely faint object in Vulpecula which was accompanied by a white dwarf. In the spring of 2024 Dana shared the coordinates of this find and we began imaging it using two scopes, a Plane Wave DR 350 located at DSO observatories in Ft Davis Texas and my 6” refractor located in my backyard. I finished up what I could during the summer and put together the first image in the fall of 2024. We could see the PN candidate but it was super faint. So, this past summer (2025) I targeted this area again and added a bunch more exposure time in H𝛼 and [OIII] for a total of 57.63 hrs. While remaining faint, this allowed us to show the PN candidate much more clearly with a shell of H𝛼 and inner core of [OIII].
Above is a crop of the area around PN candidate PaTal 1. PaTal 1 can be found at RA 20 06 50.75 DEC +29 21 40.98 (J2000). PaTal 1 is roughly 3 arc minutes in diameter and has a faint H𝛼 outer shell which is brighter on the east side and a faint inner core with [OIII] emission. The bright blue white dwarf near the center is magnitude 18.32 and is listed as Gaia DR3 2029528972603680768. The PN candidate is really very faint as can be seen on the H𝛼 and [OIII] continuum subtracted images below.
The above H𝛼 continuum subtracted exposure is 29.5hrs showing how faint the H𝛼 signal was. The H𝛼 signal is brightest on the east side.
The continuum subtracted OIII image is 27hrs and shows a very faint round oval barely above the background signal
The above image shows where on the left side of the main image PaTal 2 resides. It's a very small object of only 15 arc seconds in size. It shows up as a small oval area of nebulosity. Recently a professional spectrum has been obtained of this object by the Hobby Eberly telescope at McDonald Observatory. The spectrum shows the star is a hot sub dwarf. Close to PaTal 2 is another faint object called StDr object 28.
Above is the continuum subtracted H𝛼 image of the area around PaTal 2. You can see a rather strong H𝛼 signal from this tiny object.
The above [OIII] continuum subtracted image also shows a rather strong and round [OIII] signal.
Image Details
- Optics : Stellarvue SVX 152T refractor @f8 1200mm FL and Planewave DR 350 @f3 1030mm FL
- Mount: Paramount MYT and Planewave L350
- Camera: ZWO ASI6200 and ZWO ASI 461
- Filters: Chroma 50mm RGBHa and OIII
- Exposure (min): RGBHaOIII 60:60:57:1772:1628 56.6hrs, 2x2 binning
- Automation Control: The Sky X, Voyager, PrimaluceLab Eagle 5 and Eagle 6
- Guiding: SVX 152 guided with ASI 174 mini. DR 350 unguided
- Processing Software: PixInsight
- Location: Stark Bayou Observatory, Ocean Springs, MS and DSO observatories Ft Davis TX
- Sky: Typical SQM 19.6-20.1, Bortle 5, Suburban
- Date: August 2024 - September 2025
