First ACP Image - RCW 79

[Terry Robison]

Well, this is my first ACP image. It’s a little wonky, (I knocked my collimation out while cleaning) but I’m still over the moon with what ACP has allowed. The image was taken from Melbourne, Australia, under very bad light pollution and endless cloud. Late at night, the little robot that could managed to get several 1800 sec subs while I was sleeping. Next task – collimating.

RCW 79 is a cosmic bubble of gas and dust that forms a ring around a central ionising star. The nebula is around 1.7 million year old and has grown to a size of about 70 light years across. The object can be found in the constellation of Centaurus, and is estimated to be 17 thousand light years away.

Looking to the lower third of the image in the centre, there is a wonderful Planetary Nebula. I couldn’t find a reference to this in my charts or in within TheSkyX. The closest reference I could find is PLN 308 +0.1. But this planetary is supposed to be located almost centre of this image. The planetary nebula in this image is between the objects GSC 8991:970 and GSC 8991:1838.

How do you guys identify objects like the planetary neb in this image?

Link to larger version.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/978070...7646565068452/

Terry