Waid Observatory

Object: Abell 7

Image Credit: Data Acquisition - Ron DiIulio / Image Processing - Donald Waid

Date: February, 2022 -   -   Location: Davis Mountains west of Fort Davis, TX
Telescope: 16 in. RC  Mount: Paramount ME   Camera: ASI6200
Exposure: Ha 16x25 min. OIII 11x25 min. RGB for stars 10x2 min. each All bin 3x3

Guided using Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider (ONAG)

Click on the image below to view at higher resolution.

 

Abell 7

 

Abell 71

1Located in the constellation of Lepus the wolf approximately 1,800 light years distant is the faint planetary nebula cataloged Abell 7.  Research by Tweedy and Kwitter (Astron.J. Supp. Series, 107, 255-262, 199) reference Abell 7 as the largest observed planetary nebula not reacting with interstellar medium.  The central white dwarf star, designed WD 0500-1156, may actually be a member of a binary star system. (De Marco, et al., 2012)

Although Abell 7 is very faint, narrowband filters, along with long exposure image frames, were used in order to enhance contrast and brightness of the object during processing.  This resulted in bringing out the internal features and structure of this remarkable and complex planetary nebula.

The displayed image was processed as a bi-color image with Hydrogen Alpha data mapped to the red channel and Oxygen III data mapped to the green and blue channels.  The stars were overlaid with data obtained from a separate RGB filtered image.  This technique yields a near true color image.

This image selected for May 21, 2022 Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).

1https://astrodonimaging.com/gallery/abell-7/

 
Copyright Donald P. Waid