PN in the Large Magellanic Clouds?

[EpickCrom]

Hi guys. I was just wondering if it is possible to see any Planetary Nebulae in the Large or Small Magellanic Clouds using typical amateur backyard telescopes? We have seen open clusters, nebulae and globular clusters in them, but I haven't heard of any observations of planetary nebula? Is it possible and if so, has anyone observed any in the Magellanic Clouds? Thanks

Regards
Joe

[gaseous]

Hi Joe,



I can't get SkySafari to show any PN's in the LMC/SMC. You may have more luck with other apps, but I can't remember ever having seen a PN in these regions. That part of the sky appears to be pretty light-on for PN's generally.

[Saturnine]

Hi joe

I've just trawled through the night Sky Observing Guide Vol 3 and there are no PN listed in the LMC . I would hazard a guess that at that distance any PN would be too faint as they a diffuse objects, mostly. If there are newer PN and still compact and have a higher surface brightness, they would probably be too small to observe with most amateur scopes.

[wayne anderson]

Hi Joe,

Lots of info on the many planetary nebula in the LMC,
however something bigger than Hubble Space Telescope,
or James Webb Telescope may be needed to visually see them,
even imaging with these large telescopes is difficult.

Some interesting info on them here:
https://archive.stsci.edu/hst/mcpn/home.html

Regards,Wayne

[SteveG]

There are quite a few LMC planetary nebula visible in large amateur scopes (18"-20"), but they are dim — the brightest ones are only 15th mag (V) and stellar. So, you need to a detailed finder chart to identify the field and a filter (narrowband or O-III) to confirm you're on the right "star".

Here are two that I viewed with a 25" in April '19 from Coonabarabran. I showed these to Andrew Murrell and Gary Kopff and they were quite surprised to find they were visible without much difficulty.

The SMP designations are from the 1978 paper "The planetary nebula systems of the Magellanic Clouds" by Sanduleak, MacConnell and Philip (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1978PASP...90..621S)

Steve Gottlieb

SMP 73
05 31 21.9 -70 40 45
V = 14.7; Size 0.3"

At 244x, SMP 73 was visible unfiltered as a mag 14.7 star forming the south vertex of a small isosceles triangle with two mag 14 stars 0.6' NW and 0.9' N. It was easy to verify as there was a very good contrast gain blinking with a UHC-style filter (NPB). Only the brighter star to the north was still faint visible using the filter but the PN appeared much brighter. The planetary is located 2.3' NE of cluster S-L 539, which made pinpointing the position very easy.

SMP 52
05 21 23.8 -68 35 34
V = 14.8; Size 0.7"

At 244x, visible unfiltered as a mag 14.8 "star", forming a double with a mag 15.5 star [18" NE]. There was a strong contrast gain adding a NPB filter and SMP 52 popped out in the field!

The location was very easy to pinpoint — directly in a line with a mag 10.2 star 3' ESE and a mag 11.0 star 6' ESE. The two brighter stars and the planetary are equally spaced. The bright LMC cluster NGC 1949 is 21' ENE.

[EpickCrom]

Thank you Patrick, Jeff, Wayne and Steve for the wonderful information. I suspected that it might be a challenge to observe planetary nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds and you guys have confirmed it:thumbsup:

Now that I think about it, a lot of planetary nebulae within our own galaxy are tiny, at intergalactic distances they would essentially be stellar! Thanks again and clear skies :thumbsup:

[Merlin66]

Mati Morel's LMC and SMC charts are indispensable.
Also:
https://cloudsofmagellan.net.au/index.htm

[EpickCrom]

Hi Ken
Those are great charts of the Magellanic Clouds, thanks for sharing the link:thumbsup:

[ausastronomer]

You hit the nail on the head.

The Helix Nebula in Aquarius (NGC 7293) is one of the larger planetary nebula by apparent size at ~25' but it only spans 2.5 light years and is 650 light years distant.

The Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) in the LMC spans > 900 light years but because of the distance ~200,000 light years its apparent size is 40' x 25'.

Cheers
John B

[EpickCrom]

Hi John, nice to hear from you! I am currently working through your legendary BAM600 list:prey2:

[SteveG]

Are Mati Morel's charts still available? I purchased a set directly from him many years ago, but I have a friend who is interested in obtaining copies.

The link above ("Clouds of Magellan") is for Patrick Kavanagh's charts.

[Merlin66]

Try the Morel Astrographics link
Email seems to be morel@ozemail.com.au
http://var.astro.cz/oejv/issues/oejv0029.pdf

[Merlin66]

Made contact with Mati. His new email address is: mmorel7@bigpond.com

[SteveG]

Thanks, I've been in touch with Mati and he helped out with pdf versions. The original printed atlases for the LMC and SMC are no longer available.

Steve