PLN G321.6+0.2.2 Planetary Nebula
Located in Circinus this rarely imaged Planetary Nebula was identified around 1997 and was published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Per Corradi, Villaver, Mampaso, and Perinotto the authors of the study, the object has a typical bipolar morphology, being composed of two faint lobes departing from a brighter equatorial waist. The northern lobe is partially broken, and faint filaments surround the main “hourglass” nebula. These outer structures might be evidence of either previous mass loss events or a blow–out of the main bipolar nebula.
Imaged in HOO narrowband on our PlaneWave CDK 700 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Processing: Mike Selby