February 2018 - Picture of the Month
Planetary Nebula HFG2 in the Constellation of Puppis
Planetary nebulae are far from uniform in appearance which is one of the reasons I find them interesting. It's also a good reason for their regular appearance as Picture of the Month.
That said, when this image of HFG2 landed in my inbox I was struck by the profusion of detail from the PN itself and its interactions with surrounding material. Don talks about some of this on his website where you can get a closer look at a larger version.
HFG2 is listed under the name FEGU 248-5 in SIMBAD and also appears to be PK247-04.1, which is number 159 in the Perek-Kohoutek Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae (2000 version).
I managed to find HFG2 on page 84 of the Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas which suggested a telescope of 300mm of more aperture... unsurprising for a 15–17 magnitude planetary nebula. I may have to stick with images.
Don also believes that this is the first colour image of this object. Does anyone know differently? Has anyone seen HFG2 (PK247-04.1) visually?
James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.
