Object of the Week, January 26th, 2020 - Jones-Emberson 1 - in Lynx

[Paul Alsing]

Object of the Week, January 26th, 2020 - Jones-Emberson 1, JnEr 1, PN G164.8+31.1, PK 164+31.1, ARO 121 - Planetary Nebula in Lynx

R.A.: 07h57m51.6s.
Dec.: +53°25'17" (2000)
Size: 6.3'
Magnitude: 14.00 (V); SB 26.6 Mag/arcsec²

The Headphones Nebula, Jones-Emberson 1, is a large, obscure, and ancient 14th magnitude planetary nebula at a distance of about 1600 light-years from Earth, well-placed this time of the year in Lynx. The 16.8-magnitude central star is a very blue-white dwarf. It was discovered using photographic plates in 1939 from Harvard Observatory by co-discover Rebecca Jones, who also discovered Jones 1 in Pegasus from this same location.

The APOD picture is amazing…

pk164_caha_1866.jpg

Although in this photo the planetary is an obvious ring, in my 25” telescope, using my NPB filter, it is a very tenuous “C” shaped object with the opening to the north-east, with 2 large lobes of ‘smoke’ on opposite sides, hence the nickname “headphone” nebula. It a perfect description!

The first time I attempted to observe this guy I was fooled by the galaxy pair NGC 2474/2475 about ½° to the south, thinking at first that I was seeing only the lobes. I never did see the actual planetary on that occasion, but I went home happy in thinking that I did!


As always, give it a go and let us know.

[Steve Gottlieb]

You know who first confused NGC 2474/2475 with Jones-Emberson 1? None other than Jones and Emberson!

Their discovery notice reads, "a faint nebular ring has been detected joining two condensations, NGC 2474, observed by Sir John Herschel, and NGC 2475. The latter was discovered by Lord Rosse who described it as forming a double nebula with Herschel's object."

I first observed JnEr 1 35 years ago, back in Feb. 1985, along with Jack Marling. I'd be curious to know if anyone is aware of an earlier visual observation.

[Uwe Glahn]

You just beaten me with a narrow margin of 21 years Steve.

sketch: 16", 100x, [OIII], NELM 6m5+
JnEr1.jpg

[Bertrand Laville]

Hi All,

Very interesting target, and also, very strong to sketch.
Here is mine, with a 25" obsession, in a rather good sky of southern Alps: SQM 21.62, NELM ~ 7.0v, only 11 years ago !
Report here: http://www.deepsky-drawings.com/pk-164311/dsdlang/fr

Clear skies
Bertrand
http://www.deepsky-drawings.com/


PK 164+31.1 PN G164.8+31.1 JnEr 1 T635 BL +.jpg

[Raul Leon]

Hi here's my observation from 11/4/2013: Jones Emberson 1 : planetary nebula in Lynx ; magnitude:12? size: 6.3' My Sky Safari app says magnitude 12, but I believe it to be more like 14, because of it's large size, the light is spread out over a large area. Extremely faint and large, I needed the OIII filter just to see it.Low power is best. The edges seemed to be brighter than the rest of the disc.I used a 22mm Panoptic at 78x with my 14.5 Starstructure Dob f/4.3jones-emberson.jpg