Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Monoceros (Mon)  ·  Contains:  HD44179  ·  HD44219

Image of the day 02/20/2023

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    The Red Rectangle | A Bi-Polar Flow Sculpted by Repeated Outflows, Kevin Morefield
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    The Red Rectangle | A Bi-Polar Flow Sculpted by Repeated Outflows

    Image of the day 02/20/2023

    Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
      The Red Rectangle | A Bi-Polar Flow Sculpted by Repeated Outflows, Kevin Morefield
      Powered byPixInsight

      The Red Rectangle | A Bi-Polar Flow Sculpted by Repeated Outflows

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      Description

      This rarely imaged (I see three non-Hubble attempts on AB) planetary nebula is a fascinating optical illusion of sorts.  We see an X structure that is crossed with visible lines something like rungs on a ladder.  Each rung presumably came from a successive outflow expanding and dimming as it leaves the host star.  Our mind connects these on four sides into rectangles when in fact there is no connection on two of the four sides.  If you zoom in, you can see that each arm of the X is slightly curved near the star.   The Hubble image gives a better view of what we are seeing:  https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2004/11/1497-Image.html   In fact the rectangle is really a pair of cones on opposite sides.  The X arms are just the area of the cone where our viewing angle shows the most material and is thus brighter.  

      Color here is calibrated with SPCC and the orange parts appear to be correct.  The star, or at least the net effect of the binary star system, is quite blue.  Not sure if the reflected starlight is just enough to taint some of the inner red cone a bit orange or if maybe one of the two stars is yellow and doing it.

      This object is quite small.  The brightest rectangle measures about 160 pixels or 160 * 0.264" = 42".  In other words most of this would fit on the disk of Jupiter!  I was pleased to find numerous bright and colorful stars in the vicinity to make a more interesting composition.  

      Seeing, and the resulting FWHM of the masters, was very good as is needed to resolve this object meaningfully.  The master came in at 1.3".  I did apply BXT but it really just affected the stars because it didn't appear to recognize the nebula as anything but diffraction spikes.  In fact SXT removed the entire nebula!  

      This would be an interesting object to try lucky imaging with.  The binary is so bright that even 30 second subs had saturated pixels.  Maybe with a planetary setup the inner disk we see in the Hubble shot could be hinted at.  For sure it would better capture the inner parts of the conical outflows.  Meanwhile, I was just pleased to be able to capture several of the successive steps on the outflow cones.

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        The Red Rectangle | A Bi-Polar Flow Sculpted by Repeated Outflows, Kevin Morefield
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      The Red Rectangle | A Bi-Polar Flow Sculpted by Repeated Outflows, Kevin Morefield