MWP1, The Methuselah Nebula with an outer O3 shell (John Dziuba)

MWP1, The Methuselah Nebula with an outer O3 shell

Only discovered in 1993, this is the very faint and ancient Methuselah bipolar planetary nebula. It is the oldest and largest known planetary nebula at roughly 150,000 years old and 15 light years across. Planetary nebula usually dissipate to undetectable levels after about 10,000 to 20,000 years making this a truly unique target. It is located roughly 4,500 light years away in the Cygnus constellation. The star responsible for this amazing object is also one of the hottest stars known. This star is located slightly below the center of the nebula and appears blue.

The surrounding O3 emission is likely an outer shell that has been quickly traveling away from the nebula and interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium. This shell is full of interesting structures, with shock waves and ripples clearly visible.

The small and much more traditional appearing planetary nebula ALV1 is visible in the lower right portion of the image. This very dim object was only discovered in 2009 while MWP1 was being imaged! Its dim surface brightness and lack of definition suggests that this is also a rather old planetary nebula.

The entire scene is set amongst the unrelated and beautiful background Hydrogen Alpha emission.

The goal in processing was obviously to highlight the O3, especially the outer shell and its structures. The stable summer skies at SRO were ideal for this. All O3 data was captured with the moon below the horizon and I tried to limit Ha to less than 50% moon. I used DeepSNR to carefully de-noise the very faint O3 signal in order to retain the structural integrity of the features.

I tend to go for a bold and striking appearance in my narrow band images. I probably often over do it, but I think it is warranted here to help frame this scene.

I hope you like the result.

CS JD

Original
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Fine Art Astrophotography
Takahashi Refractors
Southern Hemisphere Astro
ASI 6200 MM Pro

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	N47X3KIQ7K5XK3P27FHDD4W9BPVF3LZ2
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	21h17m17s.332
RA (top/left)	21h21m57s.991
RA (top/right)	21h12m48s.470
RA (bottom/right)	21h12m40s.374
RA (bottom/left)	21h21m41s.802

Dec (center)	+34°10′35″.57
Dec (top/left)	+34°45′44″.88
Dec (top/right)	+34°49′33″.58
Dec (bottom/right)	+33°34′42″.47
Dec (bottom/left)	+33°30′57″.71

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