Discovery of Possible Planetary Nebula (or Other Astronomical Object) in Cassiopeia - Forums

Not sure how things like this are reported, so we thought we would post it here for thoughts and ideas. Captured with a 16" RC telescope, using Chroma RGB filters, and a Paramount ME owned by myself and John Kmetz. It seems to be uncataloged. Coords are 1 19 44.93 +58 14 01.27 (cut and paste these coords into the link; it's not loading as it should automatically): http://cdsportal.u-strasbg.fr/?target=1%2019%2044.93%20%2B58%2014%2001.27 It's in the Owl Cluster, NGC 427, in the constellation Cassiopeia.

It looks like a PN, which we have dubbed PF 1, for PhotonFarm 1, the name of our observatory in New Mexico, but perhaps it is something else all together? Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated. Also, is there an official reporting process? It would be most embarrassing if this is a known object! We plan to do a narrowband shoot tonight, it may look very diffrent.

How much integration, if I may ask?

As for where to report:
https://www.iau.org/public/themes/discoveries/

Sorry I forgot to post that information. This was approxamately 200 subs per channel at 2s. So about 20 minutes total integration. Sky conditions are Bortle 1. Shot early in the evening before the moon rose.

That's not a new discovery, sorry. Its more probable to be a flare or some type of artefact. If you want to do more research about some further cases like this, i'd suggest you search on Aladin and VizeR. Here is the location of your image, imaged by the UKIRT. Hope that help !

So you think this is a reflection artifact possibly? Here is an Ha image take this evening that shows a faint, but larger area. We moved the FOV a bit to see if that alters what we see, it seems to not have not moved, but perhaps we need to realy move the scope more.? I'm 70% on board with this being a reflection artifact at this time. Part of the difficulty here in my image is at a greater level of resolution that the catalog images. There was nothing visable in the Oiii.

you must check all your frames with blink, It seems something that moves in circle

Normally an undiscovered planetary nebula would require 20-50 hours of narrowband integration, with nothing other than a possible central white dwarf being detectable in RGB.

Its still YYoships, from my other account. Yeah this thing is for sure scope related or something like this. Survey images are way deeper than what we can achieve with such short exposures. Its not appearing in PanSTARRS and UKIRT, which goes below mag 22. A planetary nebulae would zt least have a WD* at its center, but in found nothing with VizeR. Also, this doesn't look like a PN structure wise, or any type of object besides a HHO.

I stand with the other guys here. The fact it was so bright in RGB and way fainter in Ha (and no show in OIII) is pretty telling (that this is NOT a PN). It might be optical gremlins ( I had a few of my own creating weirdly shaped illusionary objects) or something else entirely. I can try re-imaging the area, to see whether thre is any blob over there.

It might be my imagination but I seem to see a line of spaced oval reflections starting just above the bright star at the bottom of the frame, proceeding up and past the object in question. it's very much down in the noise so my brain might just be trying to make a pattern were none exists.

I moved the FOV last night, and there was no shift in the position of the "artifact". Perhaps I did not move it enough, or perhaps the reflection, if that is what it is, will always appear in the exact same relative position down to the pixel. Unfortunatly, I have no way to rotate the camera on my setup, so that is not an option. Does anyone have any thoughts how I might rule out this being a reflection artifact of some sort?

No you shoudn't. There is no object here, don't waste your own time. Such an object would appear in DSS/Other surveys like PanSTARRS, but there's nothing. One thing i would suggest is try imaging this position with another scope/look on AB for images of other to rule out the artefact possibility (even though it is one).

No you shoudn't. There is no object here, don't waste your own time. Such an object would appear in DSS/Other surveys like PanSTARRS, but there's nothing. One thing i would suggest is try imaging this position with another scope/look on AB for images of other to rule out the artefact possibility (even though it is one).

Well, OK, but I have a hard time figuring out how such a distorted elliptical artifact might be created in perfect focus with two star-like lobes. This is an RC with two reflective surfaces. The same artifact only appears in the red and green images, and not the blue image. No similar artifacts are generated by the other two adjacent bright stars.

That's why i was suggesting to try with another scope to see if the object is still here (spoiler, it won't, or this would be the weirdest thing i've saw in my entire life). The artefact is indeed weird, i agree, but this can't be a PN or other type of object because in 4 years of archival DSO astronmetry, i've never seen such a thing. This doesn't look like anything, except a misshaped HHO, but the region doesn't contain any active object like these.

I agree, certainly weird. Someone else certainly needs to image this area on the infinitely small off chance it is real, with a resolution close to what we have here 0.238"/px.

The sampling doesn't need to be that high. Even a smudge would be a good start.

Not a lot of Ha, No OIII, No Hb (no object in the B channel), bright in RG(B) -> Not a PN.

If I get a clear few hours I'll give it a shot with my 12".

Rotate your scope and try again.
Dan

andrea tasselli:
Not a lot of Ha, No OIII, No Hb (no object in the B channel), bright in RG(B) -> Not a PN.

If I get a clear few hours I'll give it a shot with my 12".

I appreciate that!

Dan Brown:
Rotate your scope and try again.
Dan

I have no way to do that, Dan. This is a remote situation. I could image again after the maridian flip.

you might try reframing it so it's in a position at the very bottom of the frame. That would get the star that might be causing the artifact further out of the fov.

That's a good idea. I'll cut out two of the bright stars and re-image. Hours away from an answer hopefully!

So here we go, using a remote 17" CDK with (what else) really really lousy seeing, with a total integration of 420s in L which should be enough to reveal if the thing exists. It does not.

Thanks for taking time to image. We have learnt that this is an artifact of the ONAG we are using. A reflection off of the back of the IR splitting mirror. It was so convincing being in focus. Alas a red herring!

Peter Boreland:
Thanks for taking time to image. We have learnt that this is an artifact of the ONAG we are using. A reflection off of the back of the IR splitting mirror. It was so convincing being in focus. Alas a red herring!

but, at least, you gave this artifact a name: PhotonFarm 1