SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
massimo.difusco
Location of Photo:
Italy
Date/Time of photo:
09/11/2023 00:0
Equipment:
Sky-Watcher Evostar ED80 @480mm (f/6.0), Konus 200/1000 @950mm (f/4.8), Player One Poseidon-C @-5 °C, Sky-Watcher Eq6r Pro mount, Optolong L_Ultimate filter, SvBony UV/IR-cut filter
Description:
I started shooting this planetary nebula in mid-September and with a lot of patience I accumulated as many shots as possible for 2 reasons: first, to reach an adequate SNR value that could allow me to push as much as possible in post-production to pump out the more as possible the nebula (definitely very faint); and second, to try to get out the very faint background H-alpha signal. I think I achieved the first objective and only partially the second, but I'm still satisfied considering that I'm shooting from a polluted city sky. The subject of the picture is the planetary nebula known as PuWe1 (Purgathofer-Weinberger 1), located in the constellation of Lynx, imaged with both my setups (ED80 refractor and Konus 200/1000). Discovered by Alois Purgathofer and Ronald Weinberger in 1980 by analyzing plates from the Palomar Deep Sky Survey, PuWe1 is one of the largest and faintest planetary nebulae visible in our skies, with a diameter of 20 arc minutes (more or less like the full Moon); as well as one of the closest, being at a distance of "only" 1200 light years.
