COPYRIGHT, PLEASE NOTE

All the material on this website is copyrighted to J-P Metsavainio, if not otherwise stated. Any content on this website may not be reproduced without the author’s permission.

BUY A MUSEUM QUALITY POSTER

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

A Planetary Nebula Purgathofer-Weinberger 1 (PuWe1) is the Last Photo for Now

PuWe 1 is one of the largest and faintest planetary nebula known to exist. The nebula was created when a red giant star blew off its outer layers near the end of its life. The gas is energized by the remaining core of the star, which is called a white dwarf. However it is very faint due to its large size. As planetary nebulae expand they become fainter because the gas moves further from the white dwarf that energizes it. (Text credit, NOIRLab)

I spent total 36 hours of collecting 20 min. exposures for this cosmic smoke ring with narrowband filters, H-alpha, S-II and O-III. PuWe1 locates in constellation lynx at distance of about 1300 light years.

This is my last new photo for the imaging season 2024-25,  we ran out of the astronomical darkens at May 7. Deep sky imaging is possible again after the first week of September. up here 65N


PuWe1

Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels


A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue. Original resolution 6500 x 6500 pixels

A Closeup

Click for a large image, 1600 x 1600 pixels


Two galaxies are visible at edge of the nebula at middle of the photo


Image in visual colors

Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels


The emission from H-alpha and S-II are seen as red, blueish tones are from an emission of ionized oxygen, O-III. This combination is very close to a visual colors of the nebula.


A size comparison between M27 and PuWe1 

Click for a large image, 2000 x 2300 pixels


Note, a size of the Full Moon is marked as a white circle as a scale.
The apparent size of the Full Moon in the sky is 30 arc minutes (0,5 degrees)

Technical details


Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaximDL v6.5
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS
Levels and curves in PS

Imaging optics, 
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer

Mount, 
MesuMount Mark II

Cameras, 
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz

filters, 
Astrodon 5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Total exposure time 36h
H-alpha, 72 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 24 h 
O-III, 6x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 6h 
S-II, 6 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 6h 





No comments: