The shape of the LoTr 5 planetary nebula

Abstract

We observed the large and faint planetary nebula (PN) around IN Com in H-alpha and [NII] light with a coronagraphic CCD device on the Wise Observatory reflector blocking the light from the central star. Our goal was to provide a second image of the object with which to confirm the features seen in the only published photograph from the paper reporting the discovery of this object. The nebula is extremely faint, but a combination of images totalling ~one and a half hours of exposure shows it fairly well. A novel image processing algorithm has been applied to the noisy image in order to reveal faint extended details of the images. The algorithm is based on a non-linear self-adaptive filter applied to the wavelet transform of the image. The nebula is not round or elliptical, but shows a two-lobed and possibly three-lobed morphology, as well as a peculiar hole-like feature East of the central star. There is definite East-West and slightly less definite North-South asymmetry.