DescriptionImages

Object name: PK62

Designation(s): PK62, 01,

M2-48/Hen 2-449/PK 062-00 1/PN G062.4-00.2 among other designations is a small planetary nebula in Vulpecula near the far more famous M27. I found two very different distance estimates for it, one says 1100 +/- 300 Parsecs (3600 +/- 1000 light-years) and the other says 7160 parsecs (23,300 light-years). Now that's a discrepancy! Interestingly the first paper listed many planetary distances from several sources including the source for the 7160 estimate but left that entry blank! Apparently, they didn't trust it enough to include. So, for now, its distance is "still to be determined" as best as I can tell.

More of a mystery is why I imaged it in the first place. I normally keep good notes about this but drew a complete blank on this one. I can't even find it in my to-do list yet I took it anyway. I also come up blank for any amateur images of it on the net. I did file it under one of its catalog names so knew what I was taking. The why is totally lost, however. So this is a short entry.

I did find a somewhat readable paper on it by some astronomers who knew why they looked into it.
http://cds.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2002/23/aa2425.pdf

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designation(s):

01, PK62,