Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Gemini (Gem)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2371  ·  NGC 2372  ·  PK189+19.1
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The Double Bubble, Peanut or Candy Wrapper Nebula: cropped HOO image compared to HST image, Rick Veregin
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The Double Bubble, Peanut or Candy Wrapper Nebula: cropped HOO image compared to HST image

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The Double Bubble, Peanut or Candy Wrapper Nebula: cropped HOO image compared to HST image, Rick Veregin
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The Double Bubble, Peanut or Candy Wrapper Nebula: cropped HOO image compared to HST image

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Description

This amazing planetary nebula is formally NGC2371/NGC2372, given two NGC numbers before it was realized that is one structure:  the stripped off outer layers of a dying Sun-like star. The central progenitor star, after passing through the red giant phase, and losing its’ outer layers, is now a super-hot Wolf-Rayet star of spectral type W01, burning at a temperature of over 130,000 ⁰C!

At about 5000 light years distant, the total span is 2 arc-minutes, so this is one of the largest planetary nebula. The inner lobes stretch 1.3 light years, the outer halo about three light years!

The inner part of this nebula is reasonably bright, but the outer parts are challenging.  Indeed, the Hubble image of this PN barely shows any of the outer parts, though it does provide fabulous details in the core. There are two opposing bright jets--visible in my image, but much better detail in the HST image--that are likely directed along the rotational axis of the WO star. The brighter jet pointed right and down is apparently pointing more toward us, compared to the other jet, which appears to be more pointed away from us.Note, the image has been cropped then upscaled.

I have included a revision that shows a gif animation comparing my image and the HST image. Note my image is HOO, the HST is (S+N)HO. Please judge for yourself, but I was happy with the correspondence of the detail in my image with the HST. Though the HST image shows much more fine detail, especially in those jets.  My image captured a lot of outer nebulosity, which is faint or not visible in the HST image. However, I must say I was not totally happy with the fainter parts. I will have to go back next year for more integration, as I really underestimated the total integration that I would need to do this amazing PN justice. This years' session wasn't helped by a lot of moon on some of the April clear nights. There is more nebulosity in my image, but trying to push it further just wasn’t working. There is no substitute for going back and adding more imaging time—my must do for next year…

My calibration, registration and stacking used DeepSkyStacker. My processing used StarTools, followed in Photoshop by separating the star and PN layers using StarXterminator, PN detail enhancement using APF-R, noise reduction in both layers using NoiseXterminator. And final levels and curves tweaks to both layers. Stars were added back in with Linear dodge add. The animation was also done in Photoshop.

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Revisions

  • Final
    The Double Bubble, Peanut or Candy Wrapper Nebula: cropped HOO image compared to HST image, Rick Veregin
    Original
  • The Double Bubble, Peanut or Candy Wrapper Nebula: cropped HOO image compared to HST image, Rick Veregin
    B

B

Description: A gif animation comparing my HOO image to the HST widefield camera in (S+N)HO.

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The Double Bubble, Peanut or Candy Wrapper Nebula: cropped HOO image compared to HST image, Rick Veregin