H{alpha} fluxes of Galactic planetary nebulae

Aperture photometry on the continuum-subtracted digital images was performed to extract H{alpha}+[NII] fluxes in the case of SHASSA, and H{alpha} fluxes from VTSS. The [NII] contribution was then deconvolved from the SHASSA flux using spectrophotometric data taken from the literature or derived by us.

Comparison with previous work shows that the flux scale presented here has no significant zero-point error. Our catalogue is the largest compilation of homogeneously derived PN fluxes in any waveband yet measured, and will be an important legacy and fresh benchmark for the community. Amongst its many applications, it can be used to determine statistical distances for these PNe, determine new absolute magnitudes for delineating the faint end of the PN luminosity function, provide baseline data for photoionization and hydrodynamical modelling, and allow better estimates of Zanstra temperatures for PN central stars with accurate optical photometry.