HFG1, Abell 6 and Sh2-196 - three PNs in one frame

[gorann]

Here I caught three planetary nebulae in one frame just north of the Soul and Heart nebulae, using my dual-RASA rig. Looking through Astrobin I find that they are rarely (never?) imaged together. Of course their small size make each of them more suitable for longer focal lengths, but there are plenty of such images.

From left to right the PNs are Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1) which is around 10 000 years old. Then comes the bubble-shaped blue planetary nebula Abell 6, which is faint (Mag = 15) and clearly emits more in OIII than in Ha. Finally, there is the strongly Ha emitting Sh2-196, which is rarely mentioned but often caught together with the Heart and Soul nebulae in wide-field images.

No filter used so the ASI2600MC is quite good at picking up Oiii and Ha with a light bucket as the RASA 8 and a dark sky. The real challenge was to tame the strong star field, and I had to stretch the nebulosity on a starless image (Star Xterminator in PS) before I brought the stars back.

Imaged in the early morning of 6 Jan 2022 with RASA8 and ASI2600MC on a Mesu200. 2 x 85 x 4 min = 11.3 hours. Processed in PI and PS. The annotated image (from Astrobin) only give PK number for the two blue ones and does not include the Abell or HFG catalogues.

CS, Göran

Edited January 12, 2022 by gorann