M27-The Dumbbell Nebula
Description:
The
Dumbbell Nebula, M27, is a planetary nebula in the Vulpecula
constellation. Located about 1360 light years away, this was the
first planetary nebula to be discoved by Charles Messier in 1764.
At 7.5 magnitude, and a diameter of about 8 arcminutes, you can
easily see this object with binoculars in dark skies. Visually
through my 20" Obsession, you can truly appreciate why they call this
object the "Dumbbell" nebula.
I
was very surprised that this image was even presentable since I shot
over 60 subframes in 5-15 mph wind. After all images were
evaluated, I was able to salvage 8 images to process & stack.
No darks were shot due to short exposures and frankly, I didn't
expect to find any images that I could process!
Photographic Details:
Date & Location: October 12th
2007, Fort Mckavett, Texas.
Scope: Obsession 20” f/5 on a
Tom Osypowski Dual Axis Equatorial Platform, Orion 100mm f/6 Guidescope.
Autoguider: SC1 Mod Celestron
Neximage Cam, Shoestring GPUSB guide port
interface adapter, and Guidemaster software.
Camera: Canon 20D DSLR (non-modded), homemade serial control shutter release
cable, and DSLR Shutter from Stark Labs.
Filters: None
Conditions: Temp 68F, Humidity 35%, Winds 5-15 mph, Transparency 8/10, Seeing 6/10.
Exposures: 8 x 20sec @ 3200 ISO Sub Frames, NO Darks.
Post-processing: 3504x2336 Raw files converted to Lossless 16-bit FITS, calibrated, aligned, and combined with ImagePlus. Final processing PhotoImpact Pro.
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