I'm thrilled to be able to show you the first color image of the potential planetary nebula Fr2-30 (RA 01 13 16.90 DEC +47 13 59.9). The above image is most likely the first deep color image of a potential planetary nebula in Andromeda called Fr 2-30. It also goes by the designation PN G 126.7-15.4. Fr 2-30 is approximately 23 arc min in size and is extremely faint. In fact, in a normal RGB image, one would hardly know anything is there. This object was discovered by D. Frew and independently found with SDSS survey data by Yuan and Liu. It's also listed in the Hash planetary database. So this isn't a discovery image since this object already has been cataloged, however no deep image of this object has been done before and its spectra has not been taken yet. I was inspired to image this object after being contacted by
Sakib Rasool, an amateur Astronomer from the UK who saw a previous image I had done of a faint confirmed planetary nebula. The image combines 28hrs of Ha exposures and OIII exposures taken through 5nm filters along with 5hrs of RGB exposures for star color. The data was collected during September and October of 2021 using a Stellarvue SVX 152T refractor and ASI 6200 mm pro camera. The image shows hydrogen (HII) as red and doubly ionized oxygen (OIII) as blue/green. RGB stars were added to the image from the RGB exposures. Whether this is an actual planetary nebula is unknown at this time as spectra has yet to be taken with professional class instruments. Maybe this image will entice the professionals to do so?
There is also a neat cluster of galaxies in the lower left of the image. These are UGC 813, UGC 816 and
Taffy 2. The two closest are thought to be interacting galaxies and the three lie 230 million light years distant.
Comments