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Abell 39 – Final Color

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Abell 39 - Chile

Abell 39 – Chile

This is the attractive looking, low surface brightness planetary nebula Abell 39 in Hercules. It lies about 6800 lyrs away.

It looks like a blue soap bubble, and is considered to be one of the most perfectly spherical objects in deep space. It has been expanding for about 11,000 years and is now about 5 lyrs across.

There are a number of small galaxies in the neighborhood. 2 can be seen inside the bubble itself. One at about 7:00 and the other on the rim at about 3:00.

PlaneWave 12.5″ Astrograph with ZWO ASI 6200 camera, Astrodon filters and ASA gearless DDM-85 mount. F/8 LRGB (21/8min L, 7/8min RGB each, all 2×2 bin).