Planetary nebula NGC2242

[iansmith]

Hello All,

Below is my attempt to image the little known planetary nebula NGC2242. This object was thought to be a galaxy until 1987 when it was reclassified as a planetary nebula (you can read about it here: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/131951/pdf). There are hardly any amateur images of this object so I have been working in the dark on this one! (of course, now that I've said that, no doubt someone will find dozens of them  ). It can be found in Auriga 6500 light years away.  Another point of interest is that it lies about 1600 light years above the galactic plane.

The image comprises narrow band Ha and O3 for the nebula (24x900s each) and broadband reg,green and blue for the stars (20x120s each) all binned 2x2. There should be a faint galaxy in the field but this got a bit lost when reducing the background noise. I suspect that I would need a great deal more integration time in RGB to bring that out. Talking of noise reduction I have been using the process described by Jon Rista (see https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/effective-noise-reduction-part-2/) which I have found to be very effective, so a big thank you to Jon Rista for putting that up.

The usual equipment: Edge HD11, Atik 414EX, Astrodon 3nm Ha and O3 narrow band filters, Astrodon RGB filters, Mesu 200; guided with ONAG and Starlight Xpress Ultrastar mono.

Here is the nebula magnified four times:

Comments and criticisms welcome.

Cheers, Ian

 

[Craney]

Amazing capture,   these planetaries are intriqing.

Does it have a name....??     I was thinking along the lines of maybe perhaps....the " 8 Ball " Nebula.

[Demonperformer]

Excellent result of this little known planetary.

[iansmith]

11 minutes ago, Craney said:

Amazing capture,   these planetaries are intriqing.

Does it have a name....??     I was thinking along the lines of maybe perhaps....the " 8 Ball " Nebula.

Thanks Craney. As far as I know it doesn't have a name. My other half thinks it looks like a cell dividing into two.

Cheers, Ian

[iansmith]

7 minutes ago, Demonperformer said:

Excellent result of this little known planetary.

Thank you  Demonperformer.

[lukebl]

Great capture. A new one on me.

[Guest]

That is a really cool contribution to the forum - and an exceptional image capture - well done!

David

[Hallingskies]

Staggering image quality for an object I'd never even heard of!  That Mesu mount looks like a good investment.  

[iansmith]

1 hour ago, lukebl said:

Great capture. A new one on me.

Thanks lukebl.

1 hour ago, David_L said:

That is a really cool contribution to the forum - and an exceptional image capture - well done!

David

Thank you David.

53 minutes ago, Hallingskies said:

Staggering image quality for an object I'd never even heard of!  That Mesu mount looks like a good investment.  

That's very kind of you Hallingskies. The Mesu may bot be the prettiest mount in the world, but it does just get the job done. 

Cheers, Ian

[Shibby]

Very impressive capture. Can't help but appreciate something you never see! It *has* to be called the 8-ball nebula; this is exactly what I thought of too when first seeing your image!

21 hours ago, iansmith said:

I have been working in the dark on this one!

Is there any other way for us astronomers to work?

[gingergeek]

Magic 8 Ball ?

[iansmith]

4 hours ago, Shibby said:

Very impressive capture. Can't help but appreciate something you never see! It *has* to be called the 8-ball nebula; this is exactly what I thought of too when first seeing your image!

Is there any other way for us astronomers to work?

Thanks Shibby. Yes, in a nice warm control room (aka the living room )

 

3 hours ago, gingergeek said:

Magic 8 Ball ?

Looks like 8-ball is winning the naming contest 

Cheers, Ian