Abell 78 - Born-again Planetary Nebula (CDK First Light) (Kyle Goodwin)

Abell 78 - Born-again Planetary Nebula (CDK First Light)

Abell 78 is located about 5,000 light-years away and is a very peculiar planetary nebula. Generally speaking, stars with roughly the stellar mass of our Sun will collapse into white dwarfs after ceasing to perform primary nuclear fusion in the cores after they run out of fuel. When the dense, hot white dwarf forms from the core of the star, remaining mass from the outer layers will be flung away from the star creating a cloud of gas and dust. This gas and dust forms what we see as a planetary nebula. These planetary nebulae tend to be quite small, but luminous, making them rewarding targets for long focal-length astrophotography, but difficult to capture at high resolution. Rarely, after the gas and dust is expelled from the star, the white dwarf core of the star restarts nuclear fusion of heavier elements at the surface creating a "reignited" or "born-again" star. Abell 78 has as its central star one such born-again star, with a WC5 spectral type, similar to that of a Wolf-Rayet star. The born-again star creates a stellar wind and ejects additional material creating the intricate structure of the planetary nebula seen in this image.

This image is the first light for my new (to me, previously owned by another DAV member) 12.5" Planewave CDK. I'm very pleased with the results, both of the scope and the mount. The CEM120 was intended to be a temporary mount until I was able to order an AP1100AE, however based on the results I'm getting with the CEM120, I think I'll save the money. The exceptional detail here was made possible by both the generally good seeing conditions at Deerlick Astronomy Village, where my remote observatory is located, as well as several exceptionally good nights. I imaged this at full focal length, without binning, to suck up as much detail as I could since it's relatively bright.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	PRPFKQAX4WAEW0S8GGOFI6F8PKSFD9NX
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	21h35m29s.347
RA (top/left)	21h36m03s.102
RA (top/right)	21h34m51s.414
RA (bottom/right)	21h34m55s.659
RA (bottom/left)	21h36m07s.203

Dec (center)	+31°41′46″.28
Dec (top/left)	+31°49′49″.99
Dec (top/right)	+31°48′56″.39
Dec (bottom/right)	+31°33′42″.52
Dec (bottom/left)	+31°34′35″.46

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