M27, Metsavainio

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope) from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen & B=Oxygen.Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III & B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.

I redid the composition too, the old one was little too static to my taste, image is cropped.

The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as a Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light years. It has a large angular diameter as a planetary nebula, about 8 x 5,6 arc minutes. (Rarely imaged outer halo is not included, it can be seen in my image. With an outer shell, the diameter is over 15'' (more than a size of the half a Moon))

Planetary nebulae are shells of gas shed by stars late in their life cycles after using up all of their nuclear fuel. The star then ejects a gaseous shell, which is illuminated by its extremely hot central star, a core left from the original star. n this image, the central star is clearly visible at very center of the nebula. M27's central star has a magnitude of 13.5 and is an extremely hot blueish dwarf with a temperature of about 85,000 K.

Our own star, the Sun, is expected to undergo the same process in a couple of billion years.

Details:

Camera, QHY9

Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f4.65

Guiding, Lodestar and SXV-AO @ 13Hz

image scale is 0.8 arcsecond/pixel

Exposures:

9x1200s Binned 1x1+ 7x600 Binned 2x2 with 7nm H-alpha filter

6x600s, binned 2x2, for O-III

2x600s, binned 3x3, for S-II.

Comments

Histogram

M27, Metsavainio