One of the beautiful ghostly planetary nebulae discovered by George Abell only 40 years ago.  Abell 39 is a very difficult object visually but note its nearly perfect spherical symmetry and how the "bubble" appears to thicken at the edges.  This is material that the center star, once like our sun, threw off thousands of years ago as it depleted its nuclear fuel.  It is a mere 7000 light years from earth and has a diameter of only 5 light years or 30 trillion miles.  

Optics:
Camera:
Exposure:

Celestron C11 F/10 (2800mm Focal Length)
SBIG ST10XME with Adaptive Optics
LRGB = 200:70:70:80 minutes

Date:
Location:
Imager:

July 1-2, 2005
Columbus, Texas
Kent E. Biggs