The Jellyfish nebula region, with Tejat (Mu-Geminorum) on the left and Propus on the right, is this week’s Picture of the Week. This was quite a long project with just a single Sky90 and an M25C OSC CCD. Why was it a long project? Because not only was this a full night’s imaging with the M25C in RGB mode, but it was also followed by two night’s imaging with an H-alpha filter, and a further night’s imaging with an SII filter. All the data was expertly added together and processed by Noel Carboni.
There is a hidden gem in this image (which might not be visible in the low resolution image shown here). But if you go up to the top of the dim nebulosity straight above Tejat, and then come down a little at the 5 o’clock position from the one bright white star seen there, you might just make out a small bright round red region. Not the usual colour for a planetary nebula – but that’s what this is. And it is a planetary nebula that emits strongly in the infrared, which is also very unusual. Furthermore, this image was taken only a few months after this planetary nebula was first identified, which is more than slightly annoying.
I can probably add quite a bit to this region using the 200mm lenses with the Optolong L-Enhance filters and 20-minute subs. Again, I had planned to do just this last season and was thwarted by the weather.
