Wray 17-31

[Geoff45]

Things were good at Wiruna last weekend. Some interruptions from clouds, but long crystal clear periods.

Wray 17-31 is a very faint planetary nebula in Vela, discovered by James Wray in 1966. It's a little over 2 arc minutes in diameter and at mag 15 it is very faint.

Exposure was relatively short at 4.8 hours.

Image and acquisition details here https://www.astrobin.com/t13brq/

Bigger resolution here https://www.astrobin.com/full/t13brq/0/

Geoff

[strongmanmike]

That's a beauty Geoff, always reminded me of a marble (https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/ab14494f12e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/960x0.jpg?fit=scale) (we called'em Snakies) and I really like the starfield in this case too :thumbsup: It's one of my favourite PN's actually, I hit it about 7 years ago myself with my 12" F3.8 and have always loved it. If you hit it with some really good exposure time, there is a newly discovered and actually quite a substantial, halo around it too :thumbsup:...actually, there were hints of the halo in my final image, so had I gone deeper myself back then (Feb 2014), it would have been my discovery/confirmation :doh: :D

Mike

[Ryderscope]

It does look like a marble in space :) I seem to be drawn to planetary nebula as I find them to be fascinating objects. Not really practical with my FSQ106 but fortunately there plenty of longer focal length imagers here on this forum posting lots of great PN images :D. Thanks for posting Geoff :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Thanks Mike. Yes, I saw your image--one of the few on the web. I also spotted Don Goldmann's image showing the halo--impressive stuff.

[Geoff45]

Thanks Rodney. You could always go for one of the big (and v faint) Abell planetaries. Should keep your gear locked up for hours and hours and ....

[Ryderscope]

Now that sounds like an excellent plan. Time for more research :question:

[strongmanmike]

Yeah, the halo is indeed faintly visible in my shot and given I had only collected a little over 2 hrs or so each of Ha and OIII, it had been suggested to me at the time, by a PN halo expert, who saw my image, that there might well be a halo showing there and I should hit it with a longer exposure to confirm... buuuut being the impatient type, especially back then, I chose to move on...idiot! :doh: :lol:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Nice and bright star field with that little planetary neb.

A new object for around here.

Greg.

[tornado33]

Great work love to see the lesser known planetaries captured.

[Geoff45]

Thanks Scott and Greg. There are a host of planetaries out there worth exploring.