A new planet in Vela

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

This started off as a bit of a scout around for a nice planetary nebula to image, I clicked on the first PN symbol in Vela showing on my planetarium software and did a quick bin 2X2 and sheesh...wow!! talk about hitting the jackpot first go

A rather faint bugger at 15mag and just a little over twice the size of Jupiter on the sky this beautiful little planetary nebula designated Wray 17-31 was only discovered in the late 60's and is rarely imaged, in fact I could only find two other images of it - a colour one taken with the AAT and the other a B&W shot with the 1.2m UK Schmidt... neither of which show as much detail .

The nebula is estimated to be about 16,000 years old and an 18th mag and very blue H rich white dwarf star sits at its centre

It is an Ha OIII+RGB (mainly for the stars) combo and it required some good seeing to do it justice...aaaand low and behold I got two good 1/2 nights of rather steady atmosphere 8/9 Feb Yaaay! ...about time and made for one of the highest res images I've managed to date with the AG12-SX combo - autoguide errors were smooth and even, averaging under 0.3" across the two nights

Planetary Globe in Vela (100% crop)

A real close up of the planets atmosphere

Comparison with AAT plate

The rest of the album including the full frame is HERE

[multiweb (Marc)]

Outstanding processing. The bubble shape is very obvious. So seeing wasn't too shabby after all.

[gregbradley]

Wow, what a find! A fabulous image and beautifully processed.

Greg.

[RickS (Rick)]

Great stuff, Mike! A neat find and a fantastic image.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Nice one Mike!

Steve

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Marbles anyone?

Lovely Mike, Mag 15 and yet it is well defined, and "bright" as.....better than the Mag 8 PN's I can see from Sludgetown.

Amazing work you do with that Light Dyson.....it sucks the photons and never seems to lose suction....

Cheers

Chris

[allan gould]

Great capture Mike for something hardly ever imaged. Excellent resolution as well.
AllAN

[h0ughy (David)]

nice find Mike - another M entry perhaps?

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Looks like a little soap bubble. Came out really well for magnitude 15.

[Rod771 (Rod)]

Great fishing Mike! Nice colours.

You should start "mowing the lawn" with your gear, given your dark skies/seeing, you may discover something yourself

[astroron (Ron)]

Where's the Planet
Nice work
Cheers

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Super image Mike, the colors are great and it seems you got some good resolution out of it too A great find, it's always nice to see something new and obscure!

[jsmoraes (Jorge)]

Beautiful and very impressive image. The comparison with Australina Observatory shows that you did very well the nebula.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Outstanding processing. The bubble shape is very obvious. So seeing wasn't too shabby after all.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Wow, what a find! A fabulous image and beautifully processed.

Greg.

Originally Posted by RickS

Great stuff, Mike! A neat find and a fantastic image.

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Nice one Mike!

Steve

Thanks boys, yes, happy with this one and yes the seeing was quite good until that easterly change hit Marc...which was good timing given I was about to start the RGB anyway ...I just wanted to have a complain about the sudden deterioration in the seeing conditions - it was remarkable

Originally Posted by Screwdriverone

Marbles anyone?

Lovely Mike, Mag 15 and yet it is well defined, and "bright" as.....better than the Mag 8 PN's I can see from Sludgetown.

Amazing work you do with that Light Dyson.....it sucks the photons and never seems to lose suction....

Cheers

Chris

Cheers Chris hoover indeed, this scope is a formidable beast and when the seeing cooperates - I really love it!!

Originally Posted by allan gould

Great capture Mike for something hardly ever imaged. Excellent resolution as well.

AllAN

Yes very strange that it is simply not imaged ..I mean, I didn't know it was there

Originally Posted by h0ughy

nice find Mike - another M entry perhaps?

Naaah...I think it is probably a bit too colourful the universe is apparently Pastel in colour after all and besides it is clearly better that M's version with the AAT so I recon it would be brushed aside ...who knows

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Looks like a little soap bubble. Came out really well for magnitude 15.

Yes happy with the result and such an intriguing object

Originally Posted by Rod771

Great fishing Mike! Nice colours.

You should start "mowing the lawn" with your gear, given your dark skies/seeing, you may discover something yourself

Cheers Rod and yes...the idea did cross my mind, if I could get this sort of seeing even more regularly it would be nice

Originally Posted by astroron

Where's the Planet
Nice work
Cheers

There, I made it a little clearer for you Ron

Originally Posted by SkyViking

Super image Mike, the colors are great and it seems you got some good resolution out of it too A great find, it's always nice to see something new and obscure!

Thanks Rolf, yes I think the smallest features in the globe there are only a couple of arc sec in diameter...you have a Hoover too

Originally Posted by jsmoraes

Beautiful and very impressive image. The comparison with Australina Observatory shows that you did very well the nebula.

Thanks Jorges, yes in this case it is not just a case of the AAT image is just very small, the 4m of aperture and broadband capture of the AAT has picked up fainter stars but there is indeed better resolution in the neb in my image

MIke

[sjastro]

Great image Mike.

I took an image of this object about seven years ago under atrocious conditions.

As a result I can appreciate how good your image is.

Clear skies

Steven

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by sjastro

Great image Mike.

I took an image of this object about seven years ago under atrocious conditions.

As a result I can appreciate how good your image is.

Clear skies

Steven

Cheers Steve, it was like winning the imaging lottery stumbling on this right when the seeing was going through a good patch here

Mike

[atalas]

Splendid work Mike!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by atalas

Splendid work Mike!

Thanks Louie

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Excellent narrow field work there Mike. Pretty tight even that close up.

[John Hothersall]

Lovely obscure faint PN, love the blue orange centre stars. 15th mag is a swine to pull out with that level of clean detail.

John.