Open AccessThe shape of the LoTr 5 planetary nebula
Author(s) -
Brosch Noah,
Hoffman Yehuda
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02159.x
Subject(s) - physics , nebula , asymmetry , astrophysics , observatory , planetary nebula , astronomy , stars , quantum mechanics
We observed the large and faint planetary nebula around IN Com in H α and N II light with a coronagraphic charge‐‐coupled device on the Wise Observatory reflector, blocking the light from the central star. Our goal was to provide a second image of the object with which to confirm the features seen in the only published photograph from the paper by Longmore & Tritton reporting the discovery of this object. The nebula is extremely faint, but a combination of images totalling about one and a half hours of exposure shows it fairly well. A novel image processing algorithm has been applied to the noisy image in order to reveal faint extended details of the images. The algorithm is based on a non‐linear self‐adaptive filter applied to the wavelet transform of the image. The nebula is not round or elliptical, but shows a two‐lobed or possibly three‐lobed morphology, as well as a peculiar hole‐like feature east of the central star. There is definite east‐‐west and slightly less definite north‐‐south asymmetry.