Kyanite Nebula

‍ ‍Description and Details: Shapiro-2, nicknamed the Kyanite Nebula, is a newly discovered planetary nebula in Centaurus. I originally discovered the nebula in 2024 through a wide-field [O III] survey effort of the southern Galactic plane, and it was registered to the HASH PNe database. This image was obtained in collaboration with Mark McComiskey, fully revealing the Kyanite Nebula’s morphology and PN nature for the first time.

The nebula was first identified as a faint ionized oxygen shell, with an associated central star (CSPN), most likely a hot subdwarf from its corrected G magnitude, visible in the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey. The corresponding Gaia source of the CSPN measured its distance of approximately 2500 parsecs, or ~8150 light-years, from Earth. The Kyanite Nebula spans ~1.8 parsecs, or ~5.9 light-years, extensive for a typical planetary nebula, indicating that it is in the late stages of its evolution. This is in line with its diffuse structure and extremely faint nature. Using equations to model PN expansion from Ogle et al. 2025, and considering typical PNe initial expansion velocities, its age is estimated to be 23000-46000 years.

The image was obtained from Mark McComiskey's personal remote system at Obstech from July 15 to August 25, 2025. It was processed using Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop.

Full details are listed on Astrobin:
https://www.astrobin.com/gev6dt/

Equipment:
ASA 600
Moravian Instruments C5A-150M
ASA DDM200

Acquisition Details:
H-alpha: 60 x 600s (10h)
[O III]: 91 x 600s (15.2h)
RGB: 6 x 300s each (1.5h)
Total Integration: 26.7h

‍ ‍Name: Julian Shapiro