Monday, September 23, 2024

MWP1 with ALV1

MWP1, the highlight of this image, is one of the oldest known bipolar Planetary Nebula (PN) known at 150,000 years. Being so old it has grown to 15 light-years across but has also become very faint. It is located approximately 4500 ly away from us in the constellation Cygnus. It is named after its 1993 discoverers, C. Motch, K. Werner and M. Pakull but it is also known as the Methuselah Nebula. The star responsible for MWP1 happens to be one the hottest known and is the blue star located in the center of the nebula.

ALV1 or PN G79.8-10.2 is an even fainter Planetary Nebula seen below MWP1 on the image. It was discovered in 2009 by Portugese amateur astronomer Filipe Alves.

Both of these objects are exceedingly dim and best done in very dark skies with a fast telescope. So naturally I attempt it with my medium speed telescope and crappy skies, 😏. Nothing was visible in any of my subs except the stars so I was imaging with hope. After lots of processing I was able to bring out the OIII signal along with the Ha. Most of the other images of this object seem to have more OIII signal and less Ha. My data did show a great deal of OIII signal in MWP1 but not in the surrounding area, however, there was a great deal of Ha. I suspect this may be due to less than optimal sky conditions when imaging OIII compared to Ha - also Ha is more forgiving. Whatever the case, I am satisfied with the final product.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/ofm6x6/?nc=collection&nce=712

https://www.instagram.com/astroquest1/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1


MWP1 with ALV1

Dates: 8-10, 8-11, 8-12, 8-13, 8-22, 8-23, 8-24, 8-27, 9-1
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 88 x 300, OIII 74 x 300, R 39 x 90, G 31 x 90, B 28 x 90 
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Bill Blanshan Star Reduction.

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