Abell 39 — A Peculiarly Well-Formed Bubble in Dusty Space

Abell 39 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Hercules. This quirky, delightful bauble is one of those deep-sky objects I’ve wanted to photograph since the moment I learned of it. Planetary nebulae are usually admired for their remarkable shapes and structures, but Abell 39 is striking to me for rather the opposite reason: it appears as an almost perfectly spherical, turquoise, soap bubble, with ripple-like shimmers of structure throughout. Amidst the negative space of a relatively featureless, dusty black backdrop of space, dotted with galaxies and stars, Abell 39 captures my imagination a delightful way. Like some sort of cosmic being’s child blew a bubble that has yet to pop.

I photographed Abell 39 during a few nights of camping in April and May 2024 in Skull Valley, located in Utah’s west desert, United States. Edited in PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop using 13 hours and 55 minutes of images.

Equipment Used
Celestron EdgeHD 8 SCT (0.7x Reducer)
- ZWO ASI2600MM Pro, ASI2600MC Pro Duo
- Astronomik MaxFR OIII
- Rainbow Astro RST 135E
- ZWO ASIAir Plus
Takahashi ε180D (1.5x Extender)
- ZWO ASI2600MC Pro Duo
- ZWO AM5
- ZWO ASIAir Plus

For more information about Abell 39, technical information about how this was photographed, post-processing notes, see:
mypetstars.com/astrophotography/Abell39

Creative Commons License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED
Attribute to James Peirce

Taken on: September 22, 2024

Tags:

Skull Valley

Epsilon 180D

RST-135E

astrophotography

ASIAir Plus

monochrome cameras

OIII

galaxies

Adobe Photoshop

West Desert

ASI2600MM Pro

dust

AM5

bubble

EdgeHD 8

nebula

planetary nebula

Abell 39

deep space astrophotography

color cameras

PixInsight

astronomy cameras

places

ASI2600MC Duo « less

Sets appears in: • Astrophotography

Groups appears in: • Astrophotography - Astronomy - Astrophysics • After Dark - Night Photography more » • Astronomy • Deep Space Astrophotography • Astronomers Talk • Starry Night Astrophotography • Astrophotography (Pixinsight Processing) • Backyard Astrophotography • APOD Submissions • Digital Astrophotography • Amateur Astro-Photography • Astrophotography - The Solar System and Beyond • Astrophotography for beginners. • The Art of Astrophotography • Astro Imaging • APOD by Astronomia.com Submissions « less

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