Planetary Nebula Candidate DR 28
Published 2 June 25
Cropped Zoom
Cropped zoom showing Simbad designation of central star
Full image FOV
Continuum subtracted and starless Ha image
Continuum subtracted OIII image
Annotated Image showing the designations of many faint galaxies in the FOV
About this object
DR 28 is a planetary nebula candidate in the constellation Andromeda. It was discovered by amateur astronomer Marcel Drechsler in May 2019. The central ionizing star is listed in Simbad as a white dwarf candidate. It goes by the designation Gaia DR3 450596357738685952. Its quite faint at magnitude 18.44 (G).
In an email I received from long time planetary nebula expert Dr Howard Bond, Penn State, he shared that a spectrum has been taken on this star and its been designated by Professor Klaus Werner (University of Tübingen, Germany) as a DAO white dwarf. A DAO white dwarf is a white dwarf with a presence of both hydrogen and helium in its spectrum. According to Dr. Bond, "DA means a white dwarf with hydrogen lines. The O is added when there is also helium; it comes from the O in the sequence OBAFGKM that is used for normal stars, indicating a very high temperature. So the star is a very hot one, at the beginning of the white-dwarf cooling sequence. As it cools down, the helium will settle out of the outer layers and it will become a pure hydrogen DA white dwarf."
With enough exposure time, DR 28 is quite photogenic showing a central area of [OIII] surrounded by H𝛼 which is oriented in a NE-SW direction. The brighter part of the object is roughly 8.5x5.5 arc min in size although fainter emission is spread out in an area around 24.5x21.9 arc min in size.
Throughout the field there is also faint H𝛼 emission and quite a bit of molecular dust.
There is only one other amateur image that I know of taken by Josep Drudis which can be found here: https://astrodrudis.com/dr-28-a-planetary-nebula-candidate/
This image was taken from 13 Oct 24 - 25 Nov 24 with my Stellarvue 6" refractor @zwoasi 6200 MM pro camera using Chroma RGB and 5nm [OIII] filters along with a Astrodon 5nm H𝛼 filter..
DR 28 is a planetary nebula candidate in the constellation Andromeda. It was discovered by amateur astronomer Marcel Drechsler in May 2019. The central ionizing star is listed in Simbad as a white dwarf candidate. It goes by the designation Gaia DR3 450596357738685952. Its quite faint at magnitude 18.44 (G).
In an email I received from long time planetary nebula expert Dr Howard Bond, Penn State, he shared that a spectrum has been taken on this star and its been designated by Professor Klaus Werner (University of Tübingen, Germany) as a DAO white dwarf. A DAO white dwarf is a white dwarf with a presence of both hydrogen and helium in its spectrum. According to Dr. Bond, "DA means a white dwarf with hydrogen lines. The O is added when there is also helium; it comes from the O in the sequence OBAFGKM that is used for normal stars, indicating a very high temperature. So the star is a very hot one, at the beginning of the white-dwarf cooling sequence. As it cools down, the helium will settle out of the outer layers and it will become a pure hydrogen DA white dwarf."
With enough exposure time, DR 28 is quite photogenic showing a central area of [OIII] surrounded by H𝛼 which is oriented in a NE-SW direction. The brighter part of the object is roughly 8.5x5.5 arc min in size although fainter emission is spread out in an area around 24.5x21.9 arc min in size.
Throughout the field there is also faint H𝛼 emission and quite a bit of molecular dust.
There is only one other amateur image that I know of taken by Josep Drudis which can be found here: https://astrodrudis.com/dr-28-a-planetary-nebula-candidate/
This image was taken from 13 Oct 24 - 25 Nov 24 with my Stellarvue 6" refractor @zwoasi 6200 MM pro camera using Chroma RGB and 5nm [OIII] filters along with a Astrodon 5nm H𝛼 filter..
Image Details
- Optics : Stellarvue SVX 152T refractor @f8 1200mm FL
- Mount: Paramount MYT
- Camera: ZWO ASI6200
- Filters: Chroma 50mm RGBHaOIII
- Exposure (min): RGBHaOIII 166:180:174:27:26.7 total 62hr 20min, 2x2 binning, drizzled to 1x1 resolution
- Automation Control: The Sky X, Voyager, PrimaluceLab Eagle 4
- Guiding: ZWO ASI 174 mini
- Processing Software: PixInsight, PS CC
- Location: Stark Bayou Observatory, Ocean Springs, MS
- Sky: Typical SQM 19.6-20.1, Bortle 5, Suburban
- Date: 13 October 24 - 25 Nov 24
