This object is an dim ancient planetary nebula located 2100 light years away in the constellation of Leo at a declination of +14 degrees. The nebula's apparent diameter is large at about 13 arc-minutes. This corresponds to a large diameter of about 8 light years, one of the largest PN in actual size that I have imaged.
This extremely faint planetary nebula is the last of 6 new planetary nebula discovered by Ellis, Grayson, and Bond in 1984 in a visual search through prints from the Palomar Sky Survey. This object is believed to be over 50,000 years old. The blue 16th magnitude star, just a bit to the right of the center of the nebula, is believed to be the central progenitor star. The PN appears to be interacting with the surrounding ISM as evidenced by the thicker rim on the right half of the nebula.
My previous sorry attempt at imaging this PN is
here. It may be the worst DSO image that I have ever posted. I dearly want to take it down now, but I thought I would leave it up for comparison.
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