KjPn8 is not well known planetary nebula in Cassiopeia, though probably many of astroimages contain this object, because it is quite close to famous NGC7635 Bubble nebula and M52 open cluster (I already imaged it here 🙂 ) . KjPn8 is an unusually shaped object with apparent dimensions of 14×4 arc minutes. It is estimated to be about 5,200 light years away from Earth. Scientists are quite excited about this object. Nebula is described as “extreme polypolar planetary nebula with a large scale structure characterized by a giant biconical envelope”. KjPn8 contains quite bright but small (about 4 arc seconds) core, but its outer shell is quite faint. Despite of 12 hours of exposure it is not well defined at the image below. The outcome would be definitely better under the dark skies.
Capturing such faint object is a challenge even with narrowband filters. The amount of light that comes from such target is so faint, that popular 6-7 nanometers wide narrowband filters are sometimes not enough. In such cases it is good to take care about background level as well: capture during moon less nights with good transparency, and/or use narrower 3nm filters.
Large version https://astrojolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018-09-29-KjPn8-2.jpg
Large version https://astrojolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018-09-29-KjPn8mono.jpg
Clear skies!
Image technical data: Date: 20.09-04.10.2018 Location: Nieborowice, Poland Telescope: Meade ACF 10" Corrector: AP CCDT67 Camera: QHY163M, gain 100 Mount: SW EQ6 Guiding: SW 80/400 + ASI290MM Exposure: RGB 50:35:40 x 30 seconds, Ha 150 x 300 seconds Conditions: seeing average, transparency average
