Messier 27 - The Dumbell Nebula
Date: July 20, 2020
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0039
Messier 27 - The Dumbbell Nebula (click to enlarge)
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About the Target
Messier 27 is a planetary nebula in the Constellation Vulpecula and is located about 1200 light-years away. M27 is also known as the “Apple Core” nebula, and NGC 6853. It's basically a star the blew up between 10,000 and 14,000 years ago, and we get to see its expanding gas cloud. While this object is small, it is twice the size of the Messier 57 (The Ring Nebula) and allows for a bit more detail to be imaged.
Annotated Image
Annotated image of M27 was created with Pixinsight’s Imagesolver and AnotateImage scripts.
Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Chart of Vulpecula with the location of the M27 indicated by a yellow arrow.
About the Project
This is one of the first Astro images I tried about a year ago (2019) when I first started this Astrophotography Journey.
This was shot on the same equipment as before but with a bit of time and experience under my belt, I was able to get a better image.
This image resulted from 45 x 120 second captures.
My first attempt at M27 from 2019 (Click to zoom)
You can see this posting HERE.
This was shot on the same equipment as before but with a bit of time and experience under my belt, I was able to get a better image.
This image resulted from 45 x 120 second captures.
Commentary from 7-29-21 when adding this project to the website
There is a gratifying level of improvement shown between the first image and this more current one. The detail and color in the nebula are improved, but the most significant improvement is in the stars and background sky handling. Still lots of room for improvement though!
Capture Details
Lights
45 x 120 seconds
The total integration time is 1.5 hours
Cal Frames
not recorded.
Capture Hardware
Scope: William Optics 132mm FLT F/7 APO
Guide Scope: Apterna 60mm
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Mount: Ioptron CEM60Polar Alignment: Ioptron Ipolar integrated alignment cameras
Software
Capture Software: Control: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, and much swearing…..
During the Summer of 2020, whilst stuck at home because of Covid I became very in improving the automation of the platform and achieving a more precise framing of the shots I made…