The Size and Age of Sakurai's Planetary Nebula and the Temperature of Its Central Star

Abstract

We present high-resolution, spatially resolved spectra of the nebula surrounding Sakurais object. We nd the expansion velocity of the nebula to be 30.9 ^0.7 km s~1, and the nebula extent to be 44A in diameter. We discuss the wide range of reported distances to Sakurais object and the dilemma that these present, since some evidence strongly favors a short distance (1.1 kpc) while other data strongly favor a longer distance (58 kpc). We also present spectra of Sakurais star centered near the j4216 CN band that suggests the star had cooled signicantly between 1996 October and 1997 May, but had not cooled further by 1997 July.