Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Crab nebula  ·  M 1  ·  NGC 1952  ·  Sh2-244
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M1, The Crab Nebula, Richard Francis
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M1, The Crab Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M1, The Crab Nebula, Richard Francis
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M1, The Crab Nebula

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Description

The Crab Nebula, an object I first viewed telescopically, if rather disappointingly, as a teenager in the 1960's, is the remnant of a supernova observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054. Probably not only observed by astronomers since, apparently, it was visible to the naked eye during daylight, so it was probably seen by everybody.

After the 11th century it took until 1731 before it was rediscovered, now as a nebula (a planetary nebula, in fact) by John Bevis.

At its centre is the relic of the supernova, now a neutron star spinning at more than 30 times per second.

The Crab Nebula is about 6500 light years from us and now has a diameter of about 11 light years. It's been expanding since 1054, and now has an expansion rate of about 1500 km/second.

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  • M1, The Crab Nebula, Richard Francis
    Original
  • Final
    M1, The Crab Nebula, Richard Francis
    B

B

Description: I've reprocessed the original data, and added 6 frames each of Ha and OIII taken at the same time.

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M1, The Crab Nebula, Richard Francis