Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Hercules (Her)
Abel 39, Greg Allegretti
Abel 39
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Abel 39

Abel 39, Greg Allegretti
Abel 39
Powered byPixInsight

Abel 39

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Description

Abel 39 is a perfect dark sky pearl. The faint planetary nebula forms a flawless sphere 5 light years diameter. The shell was thrown off by the central star as it evolved into its final white dwarf stage. Abel 39 lies relatively close to us at about 7,000 light years in the constellation Hercules. Visible through the nebula at the 2:00 position is a far more distant (and only apparently tiny) spiral galaxy.

This image was captured under high desert skies near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA with a telescope of 12" aperture at f/8 and an electrically-cooled CCD camera. Total exposure was three hours (OIII narrow-band).

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Abel 39, Greg Allegretti