The result: photographing a previously unknown planetary nebula.

Dear fellow stargazers, a few weeks ago we had a post from Marcel Drechsler seeking sponsors for a telescope project. Here is the result:

Dear friends,

A few weeks ago, over 50 donors supported our project to photograph a previously unknown planetary nebula.

Thanks to you, we were able to complete the project with great success and are finally able to present the results to you all today.

My teammate Xavier and I are delighted and incredibly proud of our latest discovery, the new candidate for a planetary nebula in the constellation Hydra, which was cataloged by Pascal Le Dû as "STROTTNER-DRECHSLER 47" (StDr47).

While the object is undoubtedly a true planetary nebula, a spectrum will definitively confirm this.

***

From discovery to the finished photograph, it was a long and challenging journey.

Many dozens of hours of work were required: research, analysis, telescope programming, monitoring the photos over a total of eight nights, spread across April and May 2020, and, of course, hours of post-processing. But considering this wonderful discovery, we can say that the effort was worthwhile.

***

STROTTNER-DRECHSLER 47
Coordinates: 09:27:31.485 -23:22:34.44
Constellation: Hydra (Water Serpent)
Diameter: 4 arcminutes

Total exposure time: 28 hours
-12.3 hours H-alpha
-12.7 hours OIII
-3 hours RGB

Telescope: 1m RC, Chilescope
Camera: fli 16803 proline