Abell 43: This is a very small (about 85 arcseconds by 80 arcseconds) and dim (magnitude 14.7) planetary nebula in the constellation Ophiuchus. A "planetary nebula" (so called because the astronomer who first identified them as nebulae noted the color was similar to the then recently-discovered Neptune) is a structure of gas resulting from the death throes of a star about the size of our sun, when it runs out of fusable material; the color is the result of the gas being ionized by the remnant of the star, a white dwarf (ionize oxygen is the dominant emission in this planetary nebulae, giving off the characteristic blue-green color). Due to its roughly spherical shape and extensive web of tendrils weaving through it, it has some resemablance to a ghostly soccer ball, hence its nickname "Galactic Soccer Ball." It is estimated to be approximately 7000 light years from earth, which would give it a diameter of about 2.5 light years.

Technical Information:

(L+OIII)(R+Ha)(G+OIII)(B+OIII): Ha-600, OIII-690, L-255, R-195, G-180, B-180 (Luminance layer was a blend of 17 fifteen-minute, luminance-filtered images and 23 thirty-minute OII_filtered images; Red channel was a blend of 13 fifteen minute red-filtered images and 20 thirty-minute Ha-filtered images; Green channel a blend of 12 fifteen-minute green-filtered images and the same OIII dated blended with the luminance layer, and the blue channes was a blend of 9 20-minute blue-filtered images and the OIII data. All images unbinned.

Equipment: RC Optical Systems 14.5 inch Ritchey-Chretien carbon fiber truss telescope, with ion-milled optics and RCOS field flattener, at about f/9, and an SBIG STX-16803 with internal filter wheel (SBIG filter set), guided by an SBIG AO-X, all riding on a Bisque Paramount ME German Equatorial Mount.

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: Maxim DL, controlled with ACP Expert/Scheduler, working in concert with TheSky X.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks, bias and sky flats), aligned, and combined in Pixinsight. Color combine in Pixinsight. Some finish work (background neutralization, color calibration, gradient removal, NoiseXTerminator and Blur XTerminator) done in Pixinsight; some finish work (Neat Image noise reduction, Smart Sharpening, LRGB combination, contrast and saturation adjustment) was done in Photoshop CC.

Location: Data acquired remotely from Sierra Remote Observatories, Auberry, California, USA.

Date: Images taken on many nights in June and July of 2020. Image posted July 29, 2020.

Date: Image scale of full-resolution image: 0.56 arcseconds per pixel.

Seeing: Generally good, with calibrated luminance images varying from 1.6 to 2.1 arcsecond FWHM

CCD Chip temperature: -25C

Copyright 2020 Mark de Regt

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