NGC 5189 - MUSCA

PLANETARY NEBULA

 (ra: 13.33,5/ dec -65:59)

April 12th 2009, Home Backyard in Martinez, Buenos Aires, Argentina

OBJECT

TYPE: Planetary Nebula

Apparent Magnitude: 10

Apparent Diameter: 2,6 arc minutes

DISTANCE: 3000 lights years (estimated)

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron C8 SCT working at f6 (roughly)

CAMERA: SXVF H9

GUIDING: William Optics Zenithstar 66 with WO 0.8 x fr/ff

IMAGE ACQUISITION: AstroArt 3.0 - Control Interface 3.72 plug in

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II - Astronomik Ha 6 nm - Atik Filter Wheel

SKY CONDITIONS: transparency and seeing regular / almost full moon

EXPOSURES: LHaRGB (20.20,20,20,20)

PROCESSING: Maxim SD Mask, Images Plus, CCD Sharp, Photoshop CS2

OBJECT DESCRIPTION

This is a fine Planetary Nebula in the Constellation of Musca. Located  at an apparent distance of roughly 3 degrees  from the Crux's Coal Sack border. It has a peculiar diamond figure with a snake shape structure inside. What called my attention is that is almost vertical to the Right Ascension Axis. (the CCD was following RA and Dec axis). Visible with 8 inches telescopes in relatively dark skies. It was first observed by James Dunlop in 1826 and in 1835 observed by John Herschel.

The night was reasonable good but the moon was at its 90% stage. The background is full of stars. It should be possible to show some more dim ones but the transparency was not that good. Nevertheless the H9 and the C8 combination performed an acceptable job considering the time invested on this beautiful object.