Abell 78

[Freddie]

Quite a long post with a few pics and links but I hope you will find it of interest.

Abell 78 is a PN with an interesting history that I couldn't find too many pics of so I thought I'd give it a go.

This is 11x20min Ha, 9x20min OIII as HOO and some 3 min R,G and B for some star colour. The last pic is just the OIII.

It's a pretty small PN but is nicely framed between two clearly different stars. This is the full FOV from my MN190 and Atik460.

What's interesting about this PN is that after the central star had created the original PN (the red outer shell with some OIII in the top right), helium fusion restarted which created the more intricate inner structure. A bit of a crop below to show this more clearly.

There is a much better description in this link http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/07/Born-again_planetary_nebula

and a more in depth study in this attachment. The solar wind speeds quoted are incredible at ~3000km/sec. I once got my Ford Fiesta close to that but that was was down hill !!!

Abell 78.pdf

If you don't want to download this file from here, it can be accessed from the above ESA link and clicking on the "paper by JA Toala et al 2015" link towards the bottom of the text.

Finally a bit of a mega crop to show the jets ejecting from the central star (1 o'clock and 7 o'clock positions) as seen in the pics in the above docs

Hope you find my pics and the links of some interest.

[Davey-T]

Lovely image of an interesting "little" object Freddie, do you know if it's visually visible ? does that make sense

Dave

[Freddie]

Thanks Dave. Sorry, no idea if it's visually visible, it's pretty faint so guess it would need a "bigish" scope.

[MartinFransson]

Exciting info and a beautiful photo of an object I haven't seen before! 

And that Ford must have been special! My first car, a Volvo 343, only managed half that speed

[Space Cowboy]

Terrific capture Freddie! I  certainly see the appeal of imaging these strange plankton like targets. I can almost hear David Attenboroughs whispering tones as the nebula floats through the ocean of space.

[morimarty]

Thats a great image freddie, of a very interesting target. I will definately look at this one to do in the future.

[Freddie]

Thanks Martin.     I had the tyres pumped up and the wing mirrors folded back so that must have given me 100km/sec at least.

Thanks Stuart.     They don't have the visual impact of the big emission nebula but I find them very interesting.

Thanks Martyn.    There's lots of different PNs out there so plenty to choose from, many of which are not imaged very often.

[gorann]

Yes, great find! Congratulations

For once, if I google it I do not find any images that is substantially better than what you as an amateur have produced. Wikipedia only have 1.5 lines about it. Cool!

I wonder what it would look like in a largish SCT with a longer focal length. Someone should try.

[Tyson M]

Nice images and write up

[Freddie]

Thanks for your comments guys.

From memory, I think I only ever found 5 or 6 images of this. Yes longer FL would help get more detail. My 925 would be good but it is alt/az and not guided so not the best kit by a long shot.

[wavydavy]

Oh nice PN Freddie.............this is one I did a while back, kinda collecting Abells at the mo, might do a montage. Nice work!

[Freddie]

Thanks "Wavy". Would be good to see your collection of PNs as there are plenty out there but not often imaged.

[Nova2000]

Nice image. 

[Freddie]

Thanks Nova2000