Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Aquila (Aql)  ·  Contains:  PK051-04.1
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PC 22, Gary Imm
PC 22, Gary Imm

PC 22

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PC 22, Gary Imm
PC 22, Gary Imm

PC 22

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a multipolar planetary nebula located 17,000 light years away in the constellation of Aquila at a declination of +14 degrees.  It spans 20 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 2 light years.   This obscure object was discovered by Apriamashvili in 1959 and later catalogued by Peimbert & Costero in 1961, hence the PC 22 designation.

The only information I could find on this object is in a 2017 paper entitled, “Catching a grown-up starfish planetary nebula – Morpho-kinematical study of PC 22”.  This object was originally believed to be an elliptical PN, but the paper indicates that this PN has multiple extended faint outflows that follow several different bi-polar axes.  The lobes of these outflows extend beyond the bright main PN structure and are only faintly seen in my image.  Because of these lobes, this PN is considered to be one of a small group of PN called “Starfish PN".  The lobes are supposed to represent the starfish arms. 

Several bright filaments, seen as bright blue arcs, are visible at the left and right edges of the bright region of the PN.

Another PN which is considered to be very close to PC22 in structure is NGC 6058.   My images of both of these PN do not show the outer lobes clearly – these extended lobes are primarily seen on longer exposures using larger telescopes.

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