Planetary Nebula candidate ALV 3
Published 27 July 2026
ALV 3 is a potential planetary nebula in the constellation Taurus. It's rather faint with a size a bit larger than 9 arc minutes. The star ionizing this H-alpha and [OIII] shell is a mag 16 white dwarf catalogued as RX J0343.2+1029. The H-alpha emission has a bit of structure to it and is brightest on the east side of the white dwarf. The [OIII] emission surrounds the white dwarf and is rather diffuse with little structure but still brighter on the east side. The wide field image shows that ALV 3 is within a large area of dust with scattered small and faint galaxies in the background. ALV 3 was discovered in 2011 by amateur astronomer Filipe Alves. I believe this is probably the second color image of this object. The first color image was taken by Peter Goodhew and can be found here: https://app.astrobin.com/i/gilvut
The image was taken using two telescopes. A remote Planewave DR 350 in Ft Davis Texas and a Stellarvue SVX 152T 6" refractor in my bortle 5 backyard. Total integration time was 66.8hrs.
The image was taken using two telescopes. A remote Planewave DR 350 in Ft Davis Texas and a Stellarvue SVX 152T 6" refractor in my bortle 5 backyard. Total integration time was 66.8hrs.
The above image is a crop of ALV 3. Clicking the image will take you to the full resolution version.
The above H𝛼 continuum subtracted exposure is a 33.2 hr exposure showing some faint structure. The H𝛼 signal is brightest on the east side.
The continuum subtracted OIII image was exposed for 24.3 hrs and shows a very faint round and relatively featureless oval barely above the background signal
Above is the annotated image showing the location of the central star of ALV 3 and the catalogue names of many of the faint background galaxies. Clicking the image will take you to a full resolution version.
Image Details
- Optics : Stellarvue SVX 152T refractor @f6 912mm FL and Planewave DR 350 @f3 1030mm FL
- Mount: Paramount MYT and Planewave L350
- Camera: ZWO ASI6200 and ZWO ASI 461
- Filters: Chroma 50mm RGBHa and OIII
- Exposure (min): RGBHaOIII 182:162:178:1996:1460 66.8hrs, 2x2 binning drizzled up to 1x1 bin resolution
- Automation Control: The Sky X, Voyager, PrimaluceLab Eagle 5 and Eagle 6
- Guiding: SVX 152 guided with ASI 174 mini. DR 350 unguided
- Processing Software: PixInsight
- Location: Stark Bayou Observatory, Ocean Springs, MS and DSO observatories Ft Davis TX
- Sky: Stark Bayou Observatory Typical SQM 19.6-20.1, Bortle 5, Suburban. DSO Ft Davis TX typically Bortle 2
- Date: 20 December 2025 - 23 March 2026
