a sharper eye, NGC 6751 in NII Ha OIII

The glowing eye nebula, NGC 6751 really looks like an eye to me, complete with a pupil, iris, and reflected light.  Yes, it's a bit blood-shot:

RGB image, 2007

I re-shot the planetary nebula with narrow band filters (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) and a newer camera with larger image scale :)

this image shows faint red jets to the sides
these did not enhance as dramatically in NII compared to Ha as typical red FLIERS do.
there is however,  an unusual line of red NII enhancing pillars crossing just above the center.
also a hint of structured filaments/pillars surrounding the clearing around the central star

lots more detail, but perhaps less eye-like

progressively aggressive stretches of the OIII image shows at least 2 faint outer shells:

also a very faint smudge to the lower right.
This paper, in part based on this super deep image confirm the presence of the outer shells, one of which is interacting with the interstellar medium.  The smudge to the lower right is apparently not part of the planetary nebula.

image details:
8" LX200R, SX Trius 694 0.4"/px
astrodon 3nm OIII, 3 nm NII, 5nm Ha filters
ASA DDM60
OIII 10 x 5 min, NII 10 x 5 min, Ha 6 x 5 minutes
8/31-9/30/2016
unusually good seeing.  
The image is rotated south up to match the older image.  
Eastbluff, CA

no calibration ;)


P.S. 
a random field star showed a hint of OIII nebulosity around it when stretched aggressively
HD 177793
19 06 22.52288 -06 04 28.5941
wondering if it's a small planetary (or just my imagination)
there is a fair amount of random nebulosity in the field
couldn't find anything on it in SIMBAD

not sure how else to check

HD 177793

fun with a spectroscope, planetary nebula NGC 6886, a tiny saturn nebula

NGC 6886 is a stellate planetary nebula--it's so small it can't be distinguished from a star. 

Here's a grey-scale image which basically looks like a field of stars:

blinking this with an image using an OIII filter reveals the planetary nebula:

it appears to be a star, but gets brighter compared to the surrounding stars with the filter indicating OIII emission, a characteristic of planetary nebulae (see previous post)

here's an image of the field using a filter with a diffraction grating which separates the light into its spectrum:

most stars yield a broad streak of light (left of star) with dark absorption lines corresponding to various elements ionizing as they absorb light.  the location of the absorption lines can be likened to the fingerprint of the star, showing which elements/ions are present and helping to classify the star.

here's a typical spectrum with a few characteristic absorption lines:

another star with a mess of broad absorption lines characteristic not of elements, but various metallic molecules, many involving titanium, which is another story:

a close look at a blink of the spectrum compared to the luminance shows two "new stars" appearing
in the spectral image (left side):

this is the planetary nebula, without a typical stellar spectrum, but rather very specific emission lines:

the brightest is OIII, oxygen; the second brightest Ha and NII (hydrogen and nitrogen).
the faint lines to the right of OIII are Hydrogen beta and Helium II--not a great target for Helium imaging

lastly, here's a very high resolution image (0.2"/pixel) taken with NII and OIII filters

"Clearly" showing a tiny bipolar planetary nebula resembling the Saturn nebula


happy new year

bill w

more on the spectroscope


image details:
8" LX200R, SX Trius 694 0.4"/px
final nebula image upsampled to .2"/px
astrodon 3nm OIII, 3 nm NII, rainbow optics filter
ASA DDM60
OIII 33 x 5 min, NII 22 x 5 min, luminance 11 x 30 sec, spectrum 13 x 5 minutes
8/31-9/30/2016
eastbluff, CA

no calibration ;)