Most planetary nebulae generally fall into standard morphological shapes such as round, elliptical and bipolar. IC2149 defies these classifications, showing an interesting elongated structure in Ha and OIII. Its magnitude 11.34 central star has a wind velocity of 1,000 to 1,600 kilometers per second (for reference, near Earth solar wind measures 300 to 500 kilometers per second) and a mass of 0.55 to 0.73 solar masses. A 2002 study indicates that IC2149 has a beamed outflow of mass which gives the nebula its interesting shape. The brightest portion of the beam in Ha is known as the 'Eastern Knot" which is at the end of the red beam coming from the central star. I processed this image a few times to try to get the Ha beam as visible as possible in the central region.
It is theorized that the structure at the opposite end to the Eastern Knot could be edges of bipolar lobes, giving IC2149 a diabolo shape.
The distance to IC2149 is 3,600 light years or 1.1 kpc.
If you are interested in doing some reading on this nebula, there is not a lot out there but I did find the following articles:
The Astrophysical Journal - Multiwavelength Observations of the Peculiar Planetary Nebula IC 2149
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/341792/pdfUniversity of Arizona's Steward Observatory and Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics image (great image!):
https://news.arizona.edu/story/astronomers-mmto-capture-planetary-nebula-glowing-detailHope you like it,
Bob
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