Hartl-Dengel-Weinberger 3 is an extremely faint and evolved planetary nebula, the remnant of a Sun-like star that shed its outer layers near the end of its life. What remains is a tenuous shell of ionized gas, now highly diluted and interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium. Its advanced age makes HDW 3 difficult to detect, as much of its original structure has dispersed and faded, leaving only subtle emission that traces the final stages of stellar mass loss.

In this deep image, the nebula appears as a delicate, translucent blue arc embedded within a broader field of red hydrogen emission. The contrasting colors reveal different excitation processes, with oxygen-dominated emission outlining the faint nebular shell while hydrogen gas in the background hints at unrelated Galactic structures along the line of sight. The scene highlights both the fragility and longevity of planetary nebulae, showing how the quiet death of a star can leave behind a ghostly imprint that persists for tens of thousands of years.