Did I just redescover a forgotten gigant SNR next to the Heart Nebula?

[gorann]

I have been collecting RGB data on the region west of the Heart Nebula with my dual RASA8 rig and last night I put on the IDAS NBZ filter to get some Ha and Oiii to add a bit more punch to it. After stretching the image and making a starless version (Star Xterminator in PS) I could see something not unlike the Spagetti nebula appearing. So a gigant super nova remnant (SNR). So I messaged my friend @wimvb who knows his ways in catalogues and he could confirm that is should be one there. It has no name but is designated hb3 or G132.7+1.3. Wim found this info https://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/surveys/snrs/snrs.G132.7+1.3.html

However, as far as I can tell not many knows about it and I have not found any images of it. I may of course have missed it, so please enlighten me if you know of any images! They need a bit of more processing but out of excitement I post where I am right now.

 

So here is first the 6.5 hours of Ha+Oiii data (RASA 8 withh ASI2600MC and NBZ filter), starless version:

And this is how it looks like after comnined with 12.5 hours of RGB data (RASA 8 with ASI2600MC without filters):

And here are some tips from Wim on how to do the detective work:

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by gorann

[Catanonia]

Wow interesting.

[gorann]

I have now done a bit research on it and found that by coinsidence a preprint about this nebula was uploaded to arXiv (https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.07749v1) by professional astronomers less than a month ago and it contains the first full image of it (attached here), so mine is apparently the second one.

Cheers, Göran

[Catanonia]

Sweet buddy, very unusual to get something like this and something we all aspire to when pointing skywards. What if we discover something

Put more hours into it and send it in as a APOD or send it to a magazine. It would make a great story.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Catanonia

[gorann]

Did a negative:This SNR has eyes, a nose, mouth, cheek, and neck!

 

Edited March 8, 2022 by gorann

[Catanonia]

4 minutes ago, gorann said:

Did a negative:This SNR has eyes, a nose, mouth, cheek, and neck!

 

Can you post the jnow coordinates. Might point my Rasa8 at it tonight for a 20min sub for fun.

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Catanonia said:

Can you post the jnow coordinates. Might point my Rasa8 at it tonight for a 20min sub for fun.

RA center: 02h18m29s.21

DEC center: +62°30′13″.3

[gorann]

Added a second panel to the image to give the SNR a bit more space🙂

The star at the top right is eta Cas

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by gorann

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Fascinating stuff!

[gorann]

37 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Fascinating stuff!

Thanks a lot Michael! Yes, a big surprise when I saw a spagetti nebula in the worng place😁

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

11 minutes ago, gorann said:

Thanks a lot Michael! Yes, a big surprise when I saw a spagetti nebula in the worng place😁

I have a feeling I can spot a little of that spaghetti right on the edge of my 12 h of Heart and Soul at F/2 image. I might try a shot at it with the ASI183MM-Pro and see what I can get

[gorann]

8 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

I have a feeling I can spot a little of that spaghetti right on the edge of my 12 h of Heart and Soul at F/2 image. I might try a shot at it with the ASI183MM-Pro and see what I can get

Go for it! F/2 and NB will  be the best option. Preferentially without moon.

CS

Göran

[gorann]

16 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

I have a feeling I can spot a little of that spaghetti right on the edge of my 12 h of Heart and Soul at F/2 image. I might try a shot at it with the ASI183MM-Pro and see what I can get

PS. I had my Samyang 135 (@f/2 with an ASI2600MC) piggybacking while the RASAs were collecting the SNR data, and I cannot see a trace of the SNR in that image (82 x 5 min at gain 100, so 6.8 hours). Maybe it would have found something if I had used NB filters, but it is easy to see why this SNR have been missed by most.

(And I see from the star shapes that I need to work on the sensor distance or stop the Samyang down)

Cheers, Göran

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by gorann

[The Admiral]

There's an interesting article by Peter Goodhew about the hunt for planetary nebulae, in the March 2022 edition of Astronomy Now. If I understand correctly, confirmation of a PN requires looking for the OIII Signal as well. May not be relevant here though.

Ian

Edited March 9, 2022 by The Admiral

[gorann]

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

There's an interesting article by Peter Goodhew about the hunt for planetary nebulae, in the March 2022 edition of Astronomy Now. If I understand correctly, confirmation of a PN requires looking for the OIII Signal as well. May not be relevant here though.

Ian

Well, this is a SNR, which is different from a PN, although both often emitt Ha and Oiii. However, incidentally I have actually recently joined in the PN-hunting crowd by pointing my dual-RASA rig at coordinates given to me by Dana Patchick in California. He has found a great number of them by looking for suitable blue dwarfs that may be the origin of the often very faint Ha-Oiii shell making up most of the PNs. Our first try two weeks ago was a miss (non existent of too faint for my set-up) and I was planning to aim at another candidate last weekend but got preoccupied with this SNR instead. Hopfully I will have a go at a PN candidate on Friday.

Göran

Edited March 9, 2022 by gorann

[The Admiral]

1 hour ago, gorann said:

I have actually recently joined in the PN-hunting crowd by pointing my dual-RASA rig at coordinates given to me by Dana Patchick in California.

It'll be interesting to see whether your rig will be able to pinpoint these PNs, because of their small size. I am sure that you are aware that, but for those who aren't, I read, Peter Goodhew uses a pair of 152mm refractors in a dark sky location in Spain and he typically uses 50-100 hours of integration. Pascal le Du maintains an on-line list of amateur discoveries from around the world (planetarynebulae.net).

Good luck and keep us posted Göran.

Cheers, Ian

Edited March 9, 2022 by The Admiral

[gorann]

6 hours ago, The Admiral said:

It'll be interesting to see whether your rig will be able to pinpoint these PNs, because of their small size. I am sure that you are aware that, but for those who aren't, I read, Peter Goodhew uses a pair of 152mm refractors in a dark sky location in Spain and he typically uses 50-100 hours of integration. Pascal le Du maintains an on-line list of amateur discoveries from around the world (planetarynebulae.net).

Good luck and keep us posted Göran.

Cheers, Ian

Yes, the PNs are big and small and all inbetween, so with the RASAs I need to go for the big ones. The thing is that the bigger they get (= older as they expand) the fainter they get, but that is where the RASAs f/2 comes into play and will outperform f/7 refractors. If everything goes to plan I will have a dual Esprit 150 rig in a second obsy in the autum so then I could also go for smaller and slighty brighter ones. Got the scopes and the mount - just need to spend the summer building that obsy.....

Cheers

Göran

[The Admiral]

9 hours ago, gorann said:

Yes, the PNs are big and small and all inbetween, so with the RASAs I need to go for the big ones. The thing is that the bigger they get (= older as they expand) the fainter they get, but that is where the RASAs f/2 comes into play and will outperform f/7 refractors. If everything goes to plan I will have a dual Esprit 150 rig in a second obsy in the autum so then I could also go for smaller and slighty brighter ones. Got the scopes and the mount - just need to spend the summer building that obsy.....

Cheers

Göran

👍

Fascinating stuff. Good to make use of those dark skies.

Ian

Edited March 10, 2022 by The Admiral

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Nice find Gorann. Looking at it in IR from WISE shows structures coherent with the shells in your image.

Adjusting the opacity slider makes it easier to see how they line up. The SN has swept up surrounding dust into filaments and heated it.

Edited March 12, 2022 by Knight of Clear Skies

[gorann]

12 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

Nice find Gorann. Looking at it in IR from WISE shows structures coherent with the shells in your image.

Adjusting the opacity slider makes it easier to see how they line up. The SN has swept up surrounding dust into filaments and heated it.

Thanks! Interesting, those sharp structures to the left are also quite apparent in the inverted version of my image.

[Laurin Dave]

Very interesting post Goran and it identifies the feature I'd seen at the edge of my Heart Nebula image.  I've also had a look at some wide field Telescope Live data that I got which shows it.  It seems particularly strong in Sii.  Please excuse the slight green tinge  

Dave

[gorann]

10 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Very interesting post Goran and it identifies the feature I'd seen at the edge of my Heart Nebula image.  I've also had a look at some wide field Telescope Live data that I got which shows it.  It seems particularly strong in Sii.  Please excuse the slight green tinge  

Dave

Yes, there it is Dave! Yes, the images in the scientific paper suggests that Ha and Sii are about equally strong but also accompany each other closely, while the Oiii has its own pattern (and is a bit weaker). I should maybe have another go at it when the moon is gone, using pure Ha, Sii and Oiii filters.

Cheers, Göran