Planetary Nebula Abell 38 (PLN 346+12.1)

[Dennis]

Hello,

Continuing with my equipment shake down after a long lay off, on Saturday night 12th June, I stumbled across Abell 38 located in Scorpius. According to The Sky 6 Pro, this is a rather faint, Magnitude 15.7 Planetary Nebula.

Mewlon 180 F12 with x0.8 Reducer/Flattener operating at F9.6 (efl 1728mm), SBIG ST7 ccd camera, 9x10 minute exposures. Taken from suburban Brisbane.

Object name: PLN 346+12.1 aka Abell 38
Magnitude: 15.7
Equatorial: RA: 16h 24m 00s Dec: -31°46'30"(current)
Size: 154"x94"
Object type: Planetary Nebula
Source catalog: PLN (Planetary Nebulae)

To reveal the PN, I created 2 frames in CS4; one for the background stars and the other for the PN which I then blended to minimize the background noise from pumping the data to reveal the PN. I didn’t even attempt to acquire any RGB data due to the faintness of this object!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[TrevorW]

thats a wee one well done

[desler]

Wow Dennis, not a lot to work with there, considerable processing skills just to lift it from the background. Nicely done!

Darren

[sjastro]

Good to see an off the beaten track object where the challenge is to extract it from the background.

Steven

[peter_4059]

Nice work Dennis on a tough target.

[multiweb]

Great shot Dennis and very well processed. You've certainly extracted some very nice details. Not an easy task at that FL :thumbsup:

[Lester]

Hi Dennis, that is faint, small and unusual. Well captured and thanks for the view.

[RobF]

Nice Dennis.
Has been a while since I've seen one of your "where others fear to tread" projects - as always impeccably presented too. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Thanks for your comments guys!:)

I’ve been trying to chase down an image of Abell 38 and I don’t seem to be having much success? Either my Google skills are wanting, or it is a not often imaged object.:shrug:

The best website I could find belongs to a German amateur astronomer who has listed all 86 PN’s with their DSS image (http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Projekte/AbellPN_E.htm)alongside his visual observations and sketches using 16” and 20” ‘scopes – quite an amazing body of work!

I might try this one again from the Qld Astrofest in August.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

be good to see Dennis - darker, deeper , longer - will you be wearing the cape this year?

[Dennis]

Only if you wear your underpants on the outside of your tights!:P

Cheers

Dennis