Messier 27 - The Dumbell Nebula - 2019 Version
Date: August 11, 2019
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0003
Messier 27 - The Dumbell Nebula - as taken on 8-11-19 (click to enlarge)
About the Target
Messier 27 - the "Dumbbell Nebula". This is a planetary nebula - basically a star that has thrown off its outer shell and we are seeing that gas still expanding around the remaining star. Located in the constellation Vulpecula, M27 is 1360 light-years from Earth.
Annotated Image
Annotated image of M27 was created with Pixinsight’s Imagesolver and AnotateImage scripts. Note - this annotated image is from a more recent version of the image. For some reason, the image solver was failing on the older images.
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
A very small object - really need a telescope with a greater focal length to do it justice.
A few steps forward...lots of techniques to learn to get the results I really want to get....The journey continues...
Capture Details
Lights
Not recorded
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
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Software
Capture Software: Control: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Photoshop, Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second-guessing, and much swearing…..
After much research, and a few phone calls to the helpful friendly folks at Highpoint Scientific , my first rig was on order! Within a week I had everything I needed to start doing astrophotography. But of course, I had no real clue how to actually do ANY of it. I barely knew how to put the pieces together much less make them work. This was the start of my journey.