[Paul Haese]

Hi all,

this is an image I am sort of comfortable with. This represents the greatest integration time I have undertaken at 81.75 hours and nearly 25 hours rejected so far. I have removed data on the basis of the moon being too close, high cloud, FWHM not the required amount or too many satellite trails.

My goal here is to image the very faint outer extensions of this intriguing object. There have been at least 4 ejections of gas over the course of the red giant phase. There might be more but finding information about it is a bit lean. The furthest out is barely visible with 43 hours of Ha with this size aperture. I am intending to continue to image this object until it sets this year. I am hoping to obtain all the data required to attain the final goal but am well aware of diminishing returns here.

However, for now I am prepared to release this colour image.

Things of note aside from the nebula itself, is the faint galaxies in the background. Some are heavily red shifted and appear yellowy orange. The closer ones are blue. I think it adds to the image and gives a sense of depth.

Click here for image.