Planetary Nebulae towards the Galactic bulge. I. [OIII] fluxes

TL;DR

This paper presents a large, uniform survey of [OIII] fluxes and diameters for 435 planetary nebulae in the Galactic bulge, significantly expanding and improving the data available for understanding their properties.

Contribution

It provides the largest homogeneous [OIII] flux and diameter measurements for Galactic bulge planetary nebulae, based on new imaging data and validation against literature sources.

Findings

High agreement with literature fluxes over two orders of magnitude

Enhanced morphological detail of planetary nebulae

Sample covers 80% of known PN in the surveyed region

Abstract

We present [OIII]{\lambda}5007 fluxes and angular diameters for 435 Planetary Nebulae (PN) in the central 10' x 10' region towards the Galactic bulge. Our sample is taken from the new discoveries of the MASH PN surveys as well as previously known PN. This sample accounts for 80% of known PN in this region. Fluxes and diameters are measured from narrow-band imaging with the MOSAIC-II camera on the 4-m Blanco telescope at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory. This is the largest (~60 square degrees), uniform [OIII]{\lambda}5007 survey of the inner Galactic bulge ever undertaken. 104 of the objects have measured [OIII]{\lambda}5007, [OIII]{\lambda}4959, H{\alpha} or H{\beta} fluxes from the literature, which we use to undertake a detailed comparison to demonstrate the integrity of our new fluxes. Our independent measurements are in excellent agreement with the very best literature sources over two orders of magnitude, while maintaining good consistency over five orders of magnitude. The excellent resolution and sensitivity of our data allows not only for a robust set of homogenous PN fluxes, but provides greater detail into their intricate, otherwise undetermined [OIII]{\lambda}5007 morphologies. These new, extensive measurements significantly increase the sample of reliable [OIII]{\lambda}5007 fluxes for Galactic bulge PN making it a valuable resource and a prelude to the construction of our new Galactic bulge Planetary Nebula luminosity function (Paper II).