Top 10 planetary nebulae

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

(This is from the Starry Nights forum, I thought we could help him out with his research .)

I have a little project going to come up with top ten lists of objects
by object type. I'm hoping that this will be an interesting thread for
the observers here on this group.

There are no limitations on your list: just the top ten planetary
nebulae for each person, for your own reasons, which I hope you will
share. I encourage people with access to the southern skies to include
southern objects.
I'll eventually compile my own list based on a combination of my own
taste/experience and the comments of others. But that isn't
necessarily
the point. Hearing what others have to say is very interesting in
itself!
So, what are your top ten planetary nebulae and why?

Clear skies,
Greg

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

Shapley 1 - you need a big scope to see it easily (although I have seen it in an 8") and an OIII filter, but it is a lovely delicate smoke-ring.

Ring Neb in Lyra - bright and condensed.

The Dumbell in Vulpecula - purely for size!

The Ghost of Jupiter, NGC 3432, in Hydra, also for size

NGC 2438 in front of the open cluster M46 in Puppis

The Blue Planetary in Centaurus, NGC 3918

NGC 3132, the Eight Burst in Vela

The Saturn Nebula in Aquarius

[Sentinel]

Originally Posted by Blue Skies

Shapley 1 - you need a big scope to see it easily (although I have seen it in an 8") and an OIII filter, but it is a lovely delicate smoke-ring.

Ring Neb in Lyra - bright and condensed.

The Dumbell in Vulpecula - purely for size!

The Ghost of Jupiter, NGC 3432, in Hydra, also for size

NGC 2438 in front of the open cluster M46 in Puppis

The Blue Planetary in Centaurus, NGC 3918

NGC 3132, the Eight Burst in Vela

The Saturn Nebula in Aquarius

Some of my favourites are off the beaten track;

Shapley1 Norma
NGC6781 Aquila
IC5148 Grus
NGC6164/NGC6165 Norma
NGC6337 Scorpius
NGC5189 Musca

There are some really nice objects around Circinus.

Paul Kemp
13.1" Reflector
Auckland, New Zealand
36° 55' 09" South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --

Website http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~michellekemp

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

I hope you noticed I didn't list the Helix - I think it's too big spread out to be nicely appreciated and I often find it a disappointment. It one of those objects that look fantastic as a captured image but lousy by eye.

But I really do like the Ring, and the Dumbell does get a wow from me each time, so I'm happy to include them.

I should add that the Ghost of Jupiter is there because of one unforgettable night's viewing through Kent Wallace's 20" down at Dryandra forest - the colour was a vivid emerald green and there was the shape of an eye staring back at me.

[CoombellKid]

Blue Skies,

Have you tried the Helix in a low powered ep?

I find it rather nice in my 20mm t5, and a tad brighter

regards,CS

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

Yes, I think I have. I recall seeing all of it in a 6" but I've always been disappointed with the lack of detail. The Rosette nebula does the same for me (although that is an emission neb, it is also large, v. large!) Perhaps this is one case where the poster pictures have spoiled me!

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

I'm surprised no one else has a list of their favourite planetaries to add, I'm sure the're a few of you out there that do actually look at them!

[AJames]

This is a very tough choice because of the wide variety of objects to select from. Magnitude is certainly the major factor, but personally I think that visible structure and colour ranks more important in suitability and attractiveness.

... but after much contemplation, these are the Top Ten Planetaries.

My Selected Top Ten

1. NGC 7298 Helix Nebula in Aquarius (Biggest and nearest PNe.)
2. NGC 6853 / M27 / Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula - Changes shape and structure through different apertures
3. NGC 3132 Eight-Burst Nebula in Vela - Just stunning!
4. NGC 5189 Spiral Planetary in Musca - Unusual shape Simply amazing!
5. NGC 6720 / M57 / Ring Nebula in Lyra - Classic type
6. NGC 3918 Blue Planetary in Centaurus - Easy planetary to find and blindingly bright.
7. NGC 1514 in Taurus - First found planetary
8. NGC 5844 in TrA. This is because it is very bright and easy to find but is unlisted and unobserved in most amateur listings.
9. NGC 3195 in "Grey Nebula" Chameleon ; Changes appearance in different apertures
10. NGC 7662 Blue Snowball Nebula in Andromeda - Just love the blue colour
=10. NGC 7354 in Cepheus - Quite pretty nebula with interesting internal structure. Observed once in 1997 from Devon U.K.

Honourable Mentions (no particular order)

NGC 6543 Cat's Eye Nebula in Draco - really love the HST image
NGC 4361 in Corvus - really nice!!
NGC 2818 in Pyxis - attractiveness increased as in open cluster
NGC 2392 Gemini - Brightest known planetary in the sky
NGC 3242 Ghost of Jupiter in Hydra - Stunningly bright and large.
NGC 3587 / M97 Owl Nebula - As Dame Edna would say;
"Spooky, darlings...."
NGC 6445 Crescent Nebula in Sagittarius - Odd shape and colour. A must if you on a large Dobsonian
NGC 4071 in Musca - A personal favourite though needs large aperture
NGC 1535 in Eridanus - A whooping 9.6 magnitude. Odd colour
IC 4406 in Lupus - Ultimate square peg in an expected round hole - brilliant)
NGC 5882 in Lupus - opposite to IC 4406 dull blue colours.
He2-434 in Pavo - Little lost planetary in the middle of nowhere.

(Carpe Noctem, parvulus - Seize the Night, Baby)

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

That's a great list, Nyx, there are a few on there I haven't seen before and I few I have but couldn't remember the numbers (someone else showed them to me). I'll have to make some notes for my next observing session.

[DARKMATTER]

hey Nyx,

I think your first one is actually NGC 7293. I have it as my desktop background, it's beautiful

[AJames]

Sorry... Typo.
doh:

[glenc (Glen)]

Here is a list of PN, brighter than magnitude 14, ranked from 1 to 336 by magnitude.
Reference: Kent Wallace, http://www.blackskies.org/intro.html#Files
SA2k is the Sky Atlas 2000 chart number.

[hector (Andrew)]

Hi All
Just a few extra to consider
NGC6302 The BUG. Great name for a planetary and true as well
NGC6337 The Diamond Ring another great name which is true as well.
IC418 The Red palnetary and when you look at it with a 12" or large scope the colour is red with averted vision.
He2-104 The Southern Crab, A faint nebula but does appear to have legs splayed like a crab in the 18" and larger scope.(actually a proto planetary)
There are plenty of others that are great ina 20" scope
Andrew

I noticed that NGC6164/5 has been mentioned and while it is a great object and one of my favourites it is not a planetary. It is a shell surrounding a fairly new star.

[glenc (Glen)]

Here is an interesting old PN catalogue from 1967. It was made in South Africa.
Title: Observations of Southern Planetary Nebulae
Authors: Henize, K. G.
Journal: Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 14, p.125 (1967)

The introduction is at:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//...00125.000.html

The bright PN have H = 4 or 5, and diameter L10 means less than 10", see:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//...00128.000.html

Some explanations are at:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//...00141.000.html

[AJames]

Glen,

The southern common planetary catalogues are;

1) Wray Catalogue. Published in 1966 as a hydrogen emission listing,
it contains emission nebulae and planetaries roughly from 08h to 18h and -64 deg to +23 deg. Msagnitude limit goes down to 18th, though several are above 11th magnitude.

2) Another is the second catalogue of Sanduleuk, Sand or Sa2, and this contains 512 planetaries south of the declination of -20 deg.

3) The third catalogue is that of the Second H (HEN in SIMBAD) or ‘He2’ produced in 1961 - that also includes his seven PNe in the ‘He1’ being
mainly northern objects in an initial survey. The He2 is mainly “new” southern PNe, which mainly concentrates along the Milky Way in the mid- to far southern portions of the sky. "He3" contains additional southern objects in his third catalogue, but this one contains few PNe. It was made in 1977.

The papers are;
He1 : K.G. Henize 1st Catalogue (1963)
He2 : K.G Henize 2nd Catalogue (1967)
He3 : K.G Henize 3rd Catalogue (1976)
HEN(x)- : All Henize Catalogues as used by SIMBAD Database

Other important southern catalogues of include;
MyCn : Mayall and Cannon (1940)
Lo : Longmore (1977)
LoTr : Longmore / Tritton (1980)
RCW : Rodgers, Campbell and Whiteoak (1960)
Sa2 : Sanduleuk (1975)
Sa3 : Sanduleuk (1976)
Karl Gordon Henize was an interesting fellow.

Born on 17th October 1926, in Cincinnati, Ohio and was interested in astronomy at an early age. He first received his BA degree in Mathematics in 1947, master degree in Astronomy in 1948 from the University of Virginia; then was awarded a doctorate of philosophy Astronomy by the University of Michigan in 1954. He became a full professor in 1964. He was also awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement medal (1974), but received merit for his planetary work with the "Robert Gordon Memorial Award" during 1968
Henize became an observer for the University of Michigan Observatory from 1948 to 1951. Stationed at the Lamont-Hussey Observatory in Bloemfontain, Union of South Africa, he conducted an objective-prism spectroscopic survey of the southern sky for stars and nebulae showing emission lines of hydrogen. [This was later partly used for the future planetary nebula work, but much of it was really done in Canberra at Stromlo.]
One of the first significant astronomical works was on the H-alpha catalogues was the "Emission of Stars and Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds" A.J.Suppl.., 2, 315 (1956), where he discovered many nebula and bright shells nebulosities like N 70 and N120. (Both SMC and LMC)
Again between 1961 and 1962 he used, for example, the 74-inch Reynolds Telescope and Uppsala 20/26-inch Schmidt at Mt. Stromlo Observatory near, Canberra, measuring planetary sizes. Much of his useful planetary nebula and training here. He co-authored, for example, the paper Westerlund, Beng. & Henize. ; "Dimensions of Southern Planetary Nebulae"; A.J. Suppl., 14, p.154 April (1967) , which was produced from images and observations made between November 1961 and June 1963, during the time when Henize was visiting Mt. Stromlo (1961-1962) from Dearborn Observatory, of the American Northwestern University. His main interest was in Hydrogen-alpha objects of which the southern ones were discovered from imaging plates.
He joined NASA during the 1967, and made studies into various ultraviolet optical systems and astronomical systems suited to the manned space flight program - tested during the end of the Gemini space project. He later became an astronaut himself as a scientist-astronaut, being back up for Apollo 15 and the Skylab missions. Henize travel once into space in July 1985 on the Challenger STS-51 as a mission specialist with Spacelab.

He sadly died just after midnight on the 5th October 1993 while climbing the north face of Mount Everest from a high altitude pulmonary edema.

Another extensive bio (with picture of him) appears at;
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/henize.html

Nyx

NOTE: I have the modern list of the He2 PNe (in Excel) if you want it.

[ngcles]

Hi All,

Very hard to argue with Nyx Aether's list or Hector's suggestions either -- I'll just make a couple of modifications mainly in order:

For mine:

1. NGC 6853 / M27 / Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula
2. NGC 5189 Spiral Planetary in Musca
3. NGC 6720 / M57 / Ring Nebula in Lyra
4. NGC 3132 Eight-Burst Nebula in Vela
5. NGC 2392 Eskimo in Gemini
6. NGC 7293 Helix Nebula in Aquarius
7. NGC 3918 Blue Planetary in Centaurus
8. Shapley 1 in Norma
9. NGC 6337 in Scorpius
10. NGC 2818A in Pyxis


But there are like many have noted, so so many close runners up like NGC 2899 in Vela, IC418, NGC 3242 in Hydra, NGC1535 in Eridanus, NGC 2440 in Puppis, NGC 2438 in Puppis, NGC 7009 in Aquarius and ...

Best,


Les D

The laws of Thermodynamics (summarised)

1st Law: You can't win.
2nd Law: You can't break even.
3rd Law: You can't leave the game.

[Ingo]

NGC 2392 is my favorite. Never seen it though my scope though.

[AJames]

Les,

Brilliant list but one question, why have you discarded NGC 3195 in Chameleon? This is a little gem that is untouchable to those northerners as the declination is -80 deg 52'.
Are you rejecting this due of the lack of colour. I think it has structurally more to offer especially in larger apertures, enhances with its two little holes.
Personally, I just love it to bits!

My written observations and text are as follows;

NGC 3195 / Cha / He2-44 / Sa2-57 / PK 296-20.1) (10h 09.3m -80d 51') lies 2 degrees from the southern border of Chameleon and Octans, and can be found exactly halfway between the 5th magnitude stars Delta 1 and 2 Chameleon and Theta Cha. The field contains few bright stars, yet aperture does not reveal many more.
Discovered by John Herschel in 1835, the planetary is fairly bright and large. AOST1&2 both state that is "...easily seen in a 10.5cm., but the prism image in 15cm." Visual magnitude is given as 11.6v, while the photographic magnitude is stated as 11.5p. A diameter has been measured as between 42 to 44 arcsec, but AOST2 find little difference in all respects except the smaller diameter of 30 arcsec. According to my visual estimates, the apparent diameter is closer to the 40 acsec mark. The shape is ovoid along the axis PA 170 deg. I do like this planetary very much because it is so bright.
An O-III filter definitely enhances this object, and with high magnification the disk also appears mottled. Visually, the overall surface brightness across the disk is even that shows little structure, reflected in the Vorontov-Velyaminov classification of Type III. Along the southern outer boundary, the planetary has a slightly ‘wavy’ appearance seen in apertures above 20cm. Larger apertures start to see far more subtle features, and in 40cm the holes start to appear, which is helped with averted vision. The differences as the aperture increases makes this one of the best in the southern skies - especially without the unnecessary dilution of tonnes of field stars over powering the object.
Distance is estimated to lie between 1.6 and 1.8 kpc.

Regards,
Nyx

Note: Mr Quirk has a lovely image of NGC 3195, using 31.5cm at f/4.5 which is worth a glance!
[ http://my.hwy.com.au/~sjquirk/images/gstar/ngc3195.html ]

Also see all his planetary nebulae (PNe) images at linked page, which have both our selections at;
[ http://my.hwy.com.au/~sjquirk/images...anetaries.html ]

Probably the best image here is of NGC 4071 in Musca ! UNBELIEVABLE SHOT!
The subtle colours here is astonishing!!!! (How isn't this object a Hubble Space Telescope target?) As you can see it worth of the "Honourable Mentions" list. Just brilliant! El superba...

Also look at beautiful IC 5148.

[ngcles]

Hi Nix,

Yep I left out 3195, its a very good object but I must admit I haven't really examined it closely for a long time -- certainly not with the 18 yet (now on my to do list for early next year). I actually use it sometimes as an alignment object for the Argo because it is bright, small and easy to recognise when working close to the pole, but I should stop for a good long look.

I felt I had to include The Eskimo (NGC 2392) after an observation I made of it a couple of years back which transformed my view of it. This is the notes. The night had _exceptional_ seeing and I used x494 in the 18". Even though it was only at about 40 deg elevation there was hardly a quiver in the seeing. We were also looking at Saturn at x371 with a completely stable image.

" *Wow!! Words nearly fail. Virtually all of the detail in the Hubble image is visible or at least there are hints of it. This PNe has a prominent mag 11 central *. The whole halo just over 1' diameter with a very diffuse looking edge. This outer halo comprises the outer 15" diameter and is patchy in brightness with a radially streaked appearance like someone has raked it outward in places. It is blue without filtration. Then heading inward there is a definite, fine circular, maybe slightly ovoid boundary where the inner halo takes over. The inner halo is generally smoother, but at times when the seeing settles you can occasionally make out a maze of fine weakly brighter streaks criss-crossing the centre -- particularly in the S half of the inner halo and some occasional tiny darker areas between. A magnificent object -- wonderful!" Also observed by M Russell and G Mitchell.

It was mouth watering.


NGC 2818A also came out like this in the 18" a month or two later:

"This is the first time I've seen this PNe in this aperture and it didn't disappoint -- a very interesting and unusual PNe. The brighter areas look like a pair of longish butterfly wings without the butterfly body in the centre -- longish opposing mirrored triangles with the long axis in PA 90. Each long triangle is about 30" long and 10" wide at the widest and the N one is slightly the weaker in brightness and definition. The short sides of the triangle are the best defined but the two long Hypotenuse much less defined on their edges. An area around this is very weakly nebulous out to 60" diameter. Moderately bright. Good response to OIII and UHC. Some bluish/smoky bluish colouration Best at x247 with 9mm T1 Nagler.

In the end I guess it is a matter of opinion. Ask me to make another list in a three years time, it will probably be different again.

Yep Quakka's images are ball-tearers. I can't remember ever seeing a really good image of NGC 4071 before. The DSS of NGC 4071 isn't much chop. Remind me, is this the faintest PNe iof the 90-odd n the NGC?

Best,

Les D

[glenc (Glen)]

They are not top 10 PN but I saw NGC 5844 (mag 13.3, size 68") and NGC 6026 (mag 13.2, size 54") last night. The first is easier to see than the second because 6026 has a faint star in it. I don't have Argo Navis or goto so it took a while to find them.