Located just north of the center of the bright star cluster M46, this gem shines at 10.1 magnitude amongst a sea of cluster stars. It is large for a planetary, at 64 arcseconds and reveals a wealth of color details from the ionized gasses within. No visible galaxies lay in this field, being too close to the galactic equator. The central star is barely seen here. it is a very faint blue object, just to the lower left of the brightest star within the ring. This 18th magnitude object is nearly swamped by the nebular light.

Processing: Calibration, RL deconvolution, final brightness adjust.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST7E w/Enhanced Cooling
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:36 (RGB Binned 2x2)
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FMHW = 3.5 arcsec, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  0 C
CCD Temperature:  -35 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, AIP4WIN, PW Pro.