This is an image that took me a while to process. The target is NGC 3242, the popular "Ghost of Jupiter" planetary nebula that is a pretty bright but small object in Hydra. While the planetary nebula's core measure only about 16" x 26" in diameter, NGC 3242 is surrounded by a first fainter shell approximately 3' in diameter and by another very faint giant halo measuring about half degree in diameter, same as the full Moon, with a prominent arc containing both strong emissions of Ha and OIII. This huge halo was first discovered on the Palomar DSS plates and later confirmed to be related to the planetary nebula itself.
NGC 3242 Ghost of Jupiter
There are rare images in the web showing the external shells that are extremely faint and unknown to most observers. Unfortunately I didn't manage to capture any luminance data so the base color image is a bit "graney" and it's a pity, considering the abundance of small galaxies in the background. I will collect this light next season to fix this problem. What on the other side add a lot to the image is the long exposures through both Ha and OIII totalling about 17.5 hours of light that permits the halos to pop out. I also took some short RGB images of the core to permit an HDR blending, not so easy due to the extreme difference of brightness between the core itself and the remaining nebulosity.
I hope you will like this one and perhaps to show something new to some of you
As usual a view of the full resolution version is highly recommended.
Clear skies
Marco