Saturday, Feb 1, 2025

HFG1 (Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1) is a planetary nebula located in the constellation of Cassiopeia, approximately 2,000 light-years from Earth. This object features an expanding shell of gas ejected by a dying star, interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium. At the core of HFG1 lies the binary system V664 Cas, which consists of a white dwarf and its companion star. The system is moving rapidly through space at an estimated velocity of 29 km/s. This high-speed motion results in a distinctive bow shock at the leading edge of the nebula and a trailing wake of ejected material stretching behind it. In addition to HFG1, the image also features a smaller, bubble-like nebula nearby, known as Abell 6, another planetary nebula located in the same region. I took 756 images of 300'' each with a dualband filter to capture faint H alpha emission as well as OIII for the PN shells, plus 60 images of 60'' each to capture broadband data for the stars. Total integration time is 64 hours.