About image
Abell 30 (also known as PK 208+33.1) is a planetary nebula in Cancer constellation, with magnitude 15.6 and dimensions 2.1’x2.1’: it belongs to the restricted family of the “born again” nebulae.
Around 12500 years ago, the central star of this nebula, having depleted its hydrogen, began ejecting its outer layers creating the planetary nebula, with a spherical shell of reddish color with traces of OIII blue gas.
Then, around the year 1150 AC, the star “lit up” again, pouring into the space streams of matter rich in helium and carbon: the interaction between this “new” material with the “old “ one gave rise to the bright knots surrounding the central star and well visible in the image.
The reconstruction of this fascinating history was possible thanks to the data collected by both orbital telescopes (Hubble, Chandra, XMM-Newton) and terrestrial telescopes.
I used RGB data as base and then reinforced the channels with Ha and OIII. I pushed especially with OIII filter in order to give more visibility of the bright knots, but all in all I found this nebula very difficult both to shoot and to process.
Technical data
Optic GSO RC12 Truss - Aperture
304mm, focal lenght 2432mm, f/8
Mount 10Micron GM2000 HPSII
Camera ZWO ASI 2600 MM Pro with filter wheel 7 positions
Filters Astrodon Gen2
E-Serie Tru-Balance 50mm unmounted LRGB and OIII 5nm
Guiding system ZWO OAG-L with guide camera ASI 174MM
Exposure details R 10x300" bin3 -15C, gain 100
G 10x300" bin3 -15C, gain 100
B 10x300" bin3 -15C, gain 100
Ha 24x600" bin3 -15C gain 100
OIII 48x600" bin3 -15C, gain 100
Total integration 14h30'
Acquisition Voyager, PHD2
Processing Pixinsight 1.8,
Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator
SQM-L 21.19
Location Promiod (Aosta
Valley, Italy), own remote observatory
Date 11/12/13/14 February 2023