The Banana Nebula, NGC 3199 in Carina

[MLParkinson (Murray)]

This nebula resembles a banana in most telescopes which only reveal the brightest arc of nebulosity (lilac in this image). Some sources describe the nebula as the bow shock formed by the intense stellar wind blowing out from the atmosphere of a Wolf-Rayet Star, a kind of star which is massive and unstable, and likely to implode and supernova within several million years. This is a mere blink of the eye on cosmic time scales.

The smaller green donut of light located towards top left is a separate planetary nebula. This is a shell of Nitrogen gas expanding from a relatively modest star nearing the end of stable evolution. My copy of the Uranometria 2000.0 star atlas does not identify this object. Perhaps you know its identity?

Technical Details:

Televue NP127is Refractor at f/5.2, Astrodon 3-nm H alpha, NII and OIII filters, QSI 683wsg Camera. Mount: EQ8. Imaged from suburban Sydney.

H alpha, NII and OIII were mapped to Red, Green and Blue respectively. Star colours were deliberately left as native narrow band colours.

H alpha: 57 x 14 minutes = 13 hours, NII: 23 x 14 minutes = 5 hours, OIII: 41 x 14 minutes = 9 hours.

Software: Nebulosity 4, PHD 2, PixInsight, Lightroom and Photoshop.

https://flic.kr/p/2kkBH8c

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Fine work.

this is a favourite target of mine which I hope to revisit this season. Though I have imaged it several times- and no where as deep as you have I should add- the planetary neb has never been in the field of view and I had no idea it existed!

[MLParkinson (Murray)]

I too never knew the planetary nebula was located nearby. That's one of the fun aspects of narrow band imaging, we often find planetary nebula that we didn't know were there. Even the faint ones pop out. This planetary nebula is exceptional in that NII emission dominates. Usually they look teal because the OIII emission dominates.

[alpal]

Hi Murray,

Well done,
I searched for a pic with that planetary nebula and I couldn't find one.
Maybe this is your new discovery?


cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

That's an intriguing image Murry, I like how the full spread of emission is showcased for the area, nice work. That ring is indeed very cool, I didn't know it was so bright in NII. I had a quick peruse to try and find an image or paper on it but couldn't find a paper, there must be one somewhere..? However it has been captured in Ha though eg. Diaz Dobillo (far left edge, near top), NandoPG Brazil (top edge right of centre), but doesn't show as obviously as in your image

Mike

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

After reading the post above by Mike I went back and reviewed my image of the area taken way back in 2008 with a OSC but using a H alpha filter

Hard to tell if it’s there or not !

https://flic.kr/p/4NLnwe