Milky Way and Magellanic Cloud Surveys for Planetary Nebulae

Abstract

The recent on-line availability of large-scale, wide-field surveys of the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds in several optical and near/mid-infrared passbands has provided unprecedented opportunities to refine selection techniques and eliminate contaminants in PN surveys. This has been coupled with new surveys offering improved detection rates via higher sensitivity and resolution. This will permit more extreme ends of the PN luminosity function to be explored and enable studies of under represented PN evolutionary states. Known PNe in our Galaxy and LMC have thus been significantly increased over the last few years due primarily to the advent of narrow-band imaging in important nebula lines such as H$\alpha$, [O iii] and [S iii]. These PNe are generally of lower surface brightness, larger angular extent, in more obscured regions and in later stages of evolution than those in most previous surveys. A more representative PN population for in-depth study is now available, particularly in the LMC where the known distance adds considerable utility for derived PN parameters. Future prospects for Galactic and LMC PNe research are briefly highlighted.