M76 vs M57: toroid-shaped planetary nebulae | William Warden

By: whwiii December 18, 2007 0

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Photographer:

William Warden

Location of Photo:

Los Alamitos, CA

Date/Time of photo:

12/1-3/07, 8/07

Equipment:

Celestron Nexstar 8 GPS, SX-AO @.2-.4 sec guider exposures, CS 10 nm HA filter, Baader 9.5 nm OIII filter with SX H9; IDAS LPR filter with H9C.

Description:

Here's an interesting juxtaposition of what appear to be two toroid-shaped planetary nebulae with layers of concentric outer shells: The little dumbbell M76 on the left appears edge-on, while the ring nebula M57 on the right appears face-on. M76 was imaged in December using narrow band HA and OIII filters while M57 was imaged in August with a combination of HA and RGB filters.