Help identifying an object

[BenF]

I was messing around in Stellarium yesterday with the DSS overlay turned on, and I happened upon an interesting object. It didn't have a name in Stellarium (I toggled on every catalog), so I went to Simbad and punched in the coordinates, still nothing. I'm still not super familiar with Simbad and the other similar tools out there, so maybe I'm doing something wrong?

The object looks like a V shaped nebula. Each arm is about 5-6' long, and the whole thing is pretty blue. In my mind, that would point to it being a reflection nebula, but there are no bright blue stars nearby. So maybe it's an internal reflection? It doesn't really show up in Pantstarrs/DR1 data, so that could support the idea of it being an artifact. But I thought I would post here and see if anyone knows.

Here are the coordinates: 06 59 54.200 +85 28 43.61

-Ben

[akarsh]

Yeah, I did not see anything cataloged in SIMBAD. It also looks like it only appears on the DSS2/Colored images, and is missing on the separate Red/Blue DSS plates you can obtain from the MAST (both POSSII and POSSI). I also fail to see it on the PanSTARRS survey like you point out. And it's outside the Sloan footprint.

My best guess is that it's an artifact, especially a scanning artifact because it doesn't seem to appear on other scans of the POSS.

Clear Skies
Akarsh

[BenF]

Yeah, I did not see anything cataloged in SIMBAD. It also looks like it only appears on the DSS2/Colored images, and is missing on the separate Red/Blue DSS plates you can obtain from the MAST (both POSSII and POSSI). I also fail to see it on the PanSTARRS survey like you point out. And it's outside the Sloan footprint.

My best guess is that it's an artifact, especially a scanning artifact because it doesn't seem to appear on other scans of the POSS.

Clear Skies
Akarsh

Thanks for the response! Not sure why this thread got called "Notifications", since I thought I titled it something like "Help Identifying an Object". But oh well.

But I'm glad to hear you think the same thing. When you say a scanning artifact do you mean from when they digitized the plates/film whatever the survey was done on originally?

-Ben

[akarsh]

Thanks for the response! Not sure why this thread got called "Notifications", since I thought I titled it something like "Help Identifying an Object". But oh well.

No worries. I fixed it.


But I'm glad to hear you think the same thing. When you say a scanning artifact do you mean from when they digitized the plates/film whatever the survey was done on originally?

-Ben

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Apparently, the POSS (Palomar Optical Sky Survey) photographic plates were digitized at least four times by different groups with different machines. I was told that the version available online as DSS was done by STScI. But what surprises me is that I see the "nebulosity" like you do in Aladin within SIMBAD, but I don't see it when I obtain cut-outs from the MAST DSS interface (https://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form) which I accessed indirectly using my tool (https://bas.org.in/dssdirect.php). I thought these were using the same source of DSS, namely STScI.

[akarsh]

This post on deepskyhunters group reminded me of this thread!
https://groups.io/g/deepskyhunters/message/89

"WiFi Nebula" -- What a cool object!

[Paul Alsing]

... my tool...

Akarsh, I really like your tool... it is fun to play with it!

[akarsh]

Akarsh, I really like your tool... it is fun to play with it!

Thanks Paul. Here's the link (https://bas.org.in/dssdirect.php) for those who haven't tried it yet :-)

Mel Bartels, master of web tools, gave me a bunch of suggestions for improvement, but I've not yet gotten around to implementing them. There's a lot of room for improvement.

[Paul Alsing]

Thanks Paul. Here's the link (https://bas.org.in/dssdirect.php) for those who haven't tried it yet :-)

Mel Bartels, master of web tools, gave me a bunch of suggestions for improvement, but I've not yet gotten around to implementing them. There's a lot of room for improvement.


OK, Akarsh... it has been over a year... have you made any progress on implementing Mel's suggestions? :D

[akarsh]

OK, Akarsh... it has been over a year... have you made any progress on implementing Mel's suggestions? :D

Haha, no, not at all. I have too many projects that I keep jumping between, leaving each one unfinished. I tell myself I'll return to this tool one day and work on all the suggestions. The big one is the ability to add an offset for telescopes like StarStructure, which angle the focuser. Incidentally, Steve's offset is 22° or so.

Clear Skies
Akarsh