Imaging telescopes or lenses: Teleskop Service ONTC 10" f4 Newton
Imaging cameras: Starlight Xpress Trius SX-814 mono
Mounts: Astro-Physics Mach-1 GTO CP4
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Teleskop Service ONTC 10" f4 Newton
Guiding cameras: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar Mono
Software: Photoshop CC · PIXINSIGHT 1.8 · Seqence Generator Pro · PHD2 Guiding PHD2 v2.6.5
Filters: Astrodon Narrowband 3nm Ha · Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Series - B 36mm · Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Series - G 36mm · Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Series - R 36mm · Astrodon Narrowband 3nm OIII
Accessory: Tele Vue Paracorr Type 2 · QHYCCD QHYCFW3-M
Dates:July 7, 2019 , July 8, 2019 , July 9, 2019 , July 10, 2019 , July 11, 2019
Frames:
Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Series - B 36mm: 40x45" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Series - G 36mm: 40x45" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Series - R 36mm: 40x45" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Narrowband 3nm Ha: 39x900" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon Narrowband 3nm OIII: 31x900" -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 19.0 hours
Darks: ~50
Flats: ~20
Bias: ~100
Avg. Moon age: 7.41 days
Avg. Moon phase: 50.33%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 5.00
Astrometry.net job: 2791873
RA center: 19h 59' 35"
DEC center: +22° 42' 49"
Pixel scale: 0.669 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: -179.166 degrees
Field radius: 0.377 degrees
Resolution: 3180x2524
Locations: Home Observatory, Schenectady, New York, United States
Data source: Backyard
The Dumbbell Nebula (NGC 6853, Messier 27) was the first planetary nebula to be discovered. Charles Messier first identified it in 1764 and due to its brightness (magnitude 7.5) and size (8 arc-min) is a popular visual target. M27 is approximately 1,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula and is estimated to be roughly 10,000 years old.
Planetary nebulas are the result of the shedding of outer layers from a low-mass red giant as it ends its life. At the center of the gas cloud of the planetary nebula is a white dwarf, the incredibly dense leftover core of the original red giant with no nuclear activity left having burned off all nuclear fuel. The white dwarf in M27 is estimated to have a radius of roughly 0.055 solar radii and a mass of 0.56 solar masses.
My data presented here was acquired over four nights with unusually good seeing for the Northeastern USA. The integrated Ha and OIII masters had a FWHM of ~2.4 arc-sec, prior to any deconvolution. In spite of the bright RGB signal of this object, I chose to acquire narrowband Ha and OIII channels to highlight the structure in the central region of the planetary nebula and the fainter outer rings. In the central region a few of the larger cometary knots (dark structures with cusped tails) can be resolved.
To enhance the presentation, I replaced star color with RGB data.
| Sony ICX814 |
| Northeast Imagers |
| Cloudy Nights |
| Narrowband imaging |
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