This object is a huge planetary nebula located 420 light years away in the constellation of Perseus at a declination of +47 degrees. It is the largest PN in the sky at 1.6 degrees apparent diameter, which corresponds to a diameter of 13 light years. For a perspective on its size, consider that it is about 50 times larger than most PNe. Although there is a bit of debate in the literature, this PN appears to be the closest PN to earth.
This nebula is extremely faint. The nebula signal is predominantly Ha, with some OIII towards the left of the nebula. I do not see the progenitor star.
Many times, as with the object
IC 1848 that I posted yesterday, imaging and processing an image is a fun challenge. But on occasion, with a few specific objects in the sky, it seems more like a battle, going back and forth day by day with various processing techniques and additional subs to try to bring out the object in more and better detail. This was one of those objects for me, as you can see here in my effort from
2019. But with my new RASA +ASI6200 setup, I feel like I have the tools now to perhaps not win the battle with these objects but at least put up a good showing in the challenging quest to capture them.
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