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M1 The Crab Nebula -- In Easter Colors, niteman1946

M1 The Crab Nebula -- In Easter Colors

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M1 The Crab Nebula -- In Easter Colors, niteman1946

M1 The Crab Nebula -- In Easter Colors

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Description

The Crab Nebula ( M1) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The nebula was observed by John Bevis in 1731; it corresponds to a bright supernova recorded by Arab, Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1054. At X-ray and gamma-ray energies, the Crab is generally the strongest persistent source in the sky. Located at a distance of about 6,500 light-years from Earth, the nebula has a diameter of 11 light years and expands at a rate of about 1,500 kilometers per second. It is part of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

At the center of the nebula lies the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star, 28–30 km across, which emits gamma rays to radio wave pulses with a spin rate of 30.2 times per second. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a historical supernova explosion.

The nebula acts as a source of radiation for studying celestial bodies that occult it. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Sun's corona was mapped from the Crab's radio waves passing through it, and in 2003, the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan was measured as it blocked out X-rays from the nebula.  [Source Wikipedia]. 

IMAGE information -- 2022
This is a combination of Ha, OIII and SII.
Ha : 37 subs (3.08 hrs.) on Jan 10th and 21st, 2022.
OIII : 40 subs (3.33 hrs.) on Jan 10th and 21st, 2022.
SII : 40 subs (3.33 hrs.) on Jan 10th and 21st, 2022.

All exposures were at 5 minutes (300s) each, 1x1 bin, -10C, Gain 1600 and Offset 56.

Each subs of Ha, SII and OIII were individually integrated, then merged, and lastly combined. The three assemblies then created the Hubble Palette, using Pixel Math and the following “SHO” formula:
Red = SII
Grn = Ha
Blu = OIII

Luminance was generated using only subs from the Ha filter and OIII filter for the two above images.
Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th from several years back. Credit also goes to Rick Stevenson’s Color Mask Script and Christopher Gomez’s tutorial.

COMMENTS:
The two presented images were created using Ha and OIII filters for their respective luminances.  An overlay of these two show a substantial difference in the locations of the Ha and OIII nebulae. North is up (pretty sure, or not), and this is a substantial crop.  

This is the second effort with this target. The first was in 2013 with the Atik 383L+mono CCD.

I continue with the "shake down" voyage of my new QHY294m Pro mono cmos camera.  I now have OK control over the “gain” setting and have the Lights, Flat Darks, Flats and Darks at Gain of 1600.

Different from my previous image (NGC1491), I’m now using Flat Darks instead of Bias. I had very helpful guidance from Fred and Bernd over at the PixInsight forum.  The use of Flat Darks has eliminated any amp glow from bleeding into the images.

I continue to use the Starnet tool in PixInsight with good results.

Comments

Revisions

  • M1 The Crab Nebula -- In Easter Colors, niteman1946
    Original
  • Final
    M1 The Crab Nebula -- In Easter Colors, niteman1946
    B

Histogram

M1 The Crab Nebula -- In Easter Colors, niteman1946