HFG 1
Amateur Astrophotography Magazine Image Of The Day 10 November 2019
British Astronomical Association Image Of The Week 10 November 2019
Hampshire Astronomical Group Picture Of The Month December 2019
Published in Astronomy Now Magazine January 2020
Amateur Astronomy Photo Of The Day (AAPOD2) 12 April 2020
Astronomia.com Astronomical Picture Of The Day 23 November 2020

HFG 1 is a very old large, low-surface-brightness planetary nebula in Cassiopeia. It surrounds, and was produced by, a binary star system (V664 Cas) that is moving rapidly through our Galaxy. V664 Cas is comprosed of a white dwarf star and a large red giant. The two stars are very close and rotate around their common centre of gravity every 14 hours. The star system is moving towards the lower left of the image. As HFG 1 plows through the interstellar medium, a bluish bowshock is produced; and a red trail of gas is left behind in its wake.



TARGET
Nomenclature:  HFG 1, Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1, PK 136+05
Right Ascension: 03:02:47.01
Declination: +64:54:35.7
Size: 8.3 arc min, bowshock is 15 arc min
Discovery: Heckathorn, Fesen, and Gull in 1982
Reference: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 396(2):1186 - 1188 · June 2009

EQUIPMENT USED
Twin APM TMB LZOS 152 refractors
10Micron GM2000 HPS mount
Twin QSI6120 CCD cameras
Astrodon filters
IMAGE CAPTURE
5nm H-Alpha: 33x1800 bin 2x2
3nm OIII: 35x1800 bin 2x2
Luminance: 11x600 bin 1x1
Red: 10x300 bin 1x1
Green: 10x300 bin 1x1
Blue: 10x300 bin 1x1
Total integration: 38.3 hours
Pixel scale: 0.533 arcsec/pixel
Field radius: 0.351 degrees
Capture dates: 15 October - 6 November 2019
Capture location:  Fregenal de la Sierra, Spain
IMAGE PROCESSING
Pre-processing: CCDStack2
Post-processing: Photoshop CS2