The Cosmic Arena - Astrophotography

PK 104-29.1 (Jones 1)

Sometimes when you are shooting an object you're left with some hours during the night when the object is gone and the angle of the camera does not allow anything else, at least the way you want. So, in a way to take advantage of those "leftovers", I usually try to capture a small object, which can be shot at any angle and cropped later. That was the case of this small planetary nebula called PK 104-29.1, or also Jones 1, albeit it became in the end a full blown project.

Jones 1 is a small planetary nebula in constellation Pegasus, discovered in 1941 by the astronomer Rebecca Jones. Later on, it acquired the designation of PK 104-29.1 when two Czechoslovak astronomers, Luboš Perek and Luboš Kohoutek, compiled a catalog of all the planetary nebulae of the Milky Way known at the time (1967).

At magnitude 15, it is a quite faint nebula, notably brighter at Oiii than in Ha wavelenghts. It has the round shape and an Ha structure nearby (here seen below it as a red smudge) which I couldn't confirm whether it is related or not. The progenitor star is AG82 454, the blue star right in the middle of the nebula - this was a Sun like star whose outer layers where shedded in outer space, leaving now the remain of its core.

All in all it was an interesting project, which would benefit of some more additionall hours to better reveal the structure of it. As the weather is now worsening, maybe some next year.

Photo shot at Barcarena, Portugal in October 2023.

Technical details as follows:

Oiii 97 x 300'' 4.Oct | 7.Oct

Ha 193 x 300’’ 4.Oct | 6.Oct | 7.Oct

RED 50 x 30’’ 4.Oct

GREEN 50 x 30’’ 4.Oct

BLUE 50 x 30’’ 4.Oct