Abstract. We follow hydrodynamically the evolution of spherical model planetary nebulae subject to different initial conditions and with various central stars, investigating how combinations of central-star mass and asymptotic giant branch mass-loss rate determine the shape and kinematics of a planetary nebula. With this approach we aim at constituting a framework useful for the interpretation of the evolutionary status and previous mass-loss history of observed individual nebulae, making use of their kinematical properties and surface brightness characteristics. In particular, the models are compared with the observed morphologies and kinematics of double shell nebulae. The dynamical structure of all the models is characterized by a more or less complicated shock wave pattern set up by ionization and wind interaction whose combined action results in general in a typical double-shell structure. We have found that models with simple initial structures based on a constant AGB massloss rate fail to comply with observed shell morphologies and surface-brightness distributions. A reasonable agreement with the observations is only found for a model where the mass-loss rate is strongly increasing towards the end of the asymptotic giant-branch evolution. Depending on the central star's evolutionary speed and the density of the cool wind expelled along the asymptotic giant-branch, planetary nebulae may never get optically thin. This is primarily the case for the more massive central stars, and this fact offers a rather natural explanation for the long standing problem of the very existence of molecular hydrogen in the immediate vicinity of hot central stars. We also show that distances to planetary nebulae based on expansion parallaxes are systematically too small by a significant amount.

We present a comprehensive observational study of haloes around planetary nebulae (PNe). Deep Hα+[N ii] and/or [O iii] narrow‐band images have been obtained for 35 PNe, and faint extended haloes have been newly discovered in the following 10 objects: Cn 1‐5, IC 2165, IC 2553, NGC 2792, NGC 2867, NGC 3918, NGC 5979, NGC 6578, PB 4, and possibly IC 1747. New deep images have also been obtained of other known or suspected haloes, including the huge extended emission around NGC 3242 and Sh 2‐200. In addition, the literature was searched, and together with the new observations an improved data base containing some 50 PN haloes has been compiled. The halo sample is illustrated in an image atlas contained in this paper, and the original images are made available for use by the scientific community at http://www.ing. iac.es/∼rcorradi/HALOES/. The haloes have been classified following the predictions of modern radiation‐hydrodynamical simulations that describe the formation and evolution of ionized multiple shells and haloes around PNe. According to the models, the observed haloes have been divided into the following groups: (i) circular or slightly elliptical asymptotic giant branch (AGB) haloes, which contain the signature of the last thermal pulse on the AGB; (ii) highly asymmetrical AGB haloes; (iii) candidate recombination haloes, i.e. limb‐brightened extended shells that are expected to be produced by recombination during the late post‐AGB evolution, when the luminosity of the central star drops rapidly by a significant factor; (iv) uncertain cases which deserve further study for a reliable classification; (v) non‐detections, i.e. PNe in which no halo is found to a level of ≲10−3 the peak surface brightness of the inner nebulae. We discuss the properties of the haloes: detection rate, morphology, location of the central stars in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, sizes, surface brightness profiles, and kinematical ages. Among the most notable results, we find that, as predicted by models, ionized AGB haloes are a quite common phenomenon in PNe, having been found in 60 per cent of elliptical PNe for which adequately deep images exist. Another 10 per cent show possible recombination haloes. In addition, using the kinematical ages of the haloes and inner nebulae, we conclude that most of the PNe with observed AGB haloes have left the AGB far from a thermal pulse, at a phase when hydrogen burning is the dominant energy source. We find no significant differences between the AGB haloes of hydrogen‐poor and hydrogen‐rich central stars.

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Abstract. Spectroscopic observations of 48 emission-line objects of M 33 have been obtained with the multi-object, wide field, fibre spectrograph AF2/WYFFOS at the 4.2 m WHT telescope (La Palma, Spain). Line intensities and logarithmic extinction, suggests that >70% of the candidates are Planetary Nebulae (PNe). Chemical abundances and nebular physical parameters have been derived for the three of the six PNe where the 4363 Å [O ] emission line was measurable. These are disc PNe, located within a galactocentric distance of 4.1 kpc, and, to date, they are the farthest PNe with a direct chemical abundance determination. No discrepancy in the helium, Oxygen and Argon abundances has been found in comparison with corresponding abundances of PNe in our Galaxy. Only a lower limit to the sulphur abundance has been obtained since we could not detect any [S ] line. N/H appears to be lower than the Galactic value; some possible explanations for this under-abundance are discussed.