Our team first made note of the Vulcan Nebula WPS46 during a large survey campaign conducted from SRO using a rokinon 135mm lens and dual narrowband filter. The goal of the survey campaign was to identify large-scale Oiii structures tied to the Ursa Major SNR. We checked many large swaths of the sky which seemed to be promising, but no signal was detected anywhere except for right next to m81 and m82.
[color=var(--lighterGrey)]After surveying for so long, it was refreshing to see a hint of blue/green. However, due to the envelope shape of this signal, we thought it was more likely to be an Hii or ISM region as opposed to the SNR we hoped for. Regardless, we decided to shoot a deeper image, and perhaps get an interesting composition of this nebula alongside m81/m82.[/color]
After more research, we learned that this nebula has been previously noted by the
WHAM survey of Ha enhancements at high galactic latitude, and has also been photographed several times here on astrobin in the last few months.
Its central ionizing star is TYC 4376-968-1. It is neither a hot dwarf nor a hot-subdwarf type star. Combined with the interesting structure of the nebula, this is definitely not a PN, but something else.
[color=var(--lighterGrey)]After stacking and reviewing the deeper FSQ106 images of this object, we noticed a massive single filament of h-alpha streaking right through the image. So we unexpectedly found part
of the SNR we were searching for in the first place!
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About the collaborationCapturing of the nebula happened from three different telescope systems, FSQ106 widefield systems from
@psparkman and
@Tarun Kottary , and a DR350 from Curtis Morgan and Bray Falls. The data collection and framing was coordinated by Tim Schaeffer. The preprocessing and post processing for the wide and close images were done by Steeve Body and Bray Falls respectively.
The finished wide image was a 2 pane mosaic from the FSQ systems as well as the close up image of the Vulcan nebula which is a composition of the full data set, but upscaled to match the narrower FOV of the DR350.
There is an overwhelming amount of details to be seen in the full wide image. M81/m82, tons of intricate IFN, the Vulcan nebula, the Uma SNR, and many small background galaxies.
Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to the project, and we hope you all enjoy the image!
- Text written by
@Bray Falls
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