Chemical Abundances of Compact Planetary Nebulae

We present preliminary results from an optical spectroscopic survey of compact planetary nebulae (PNe) in the Galactic disk. This is an ongoing optical+infrared spectral survey of 150 compact PNe to build a deep sample of PN chemical abundances. We obtained optical spectra of PNe with the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope and Goodman High-Throughput Spectrograph between 2012 and 2015. These data were used to calculate the nebulae diagnostics such as electron temperature and density for each PN, and to derive the elemental abundances of He, N, O Ne, S and Ar. These abundances are vital to understanding the nature of the PNe, and their low- to intermediate-mass progenitor stars.