M1 Crab Nebula (Joe Niemeyer)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Taurus (Tau) · Contains: M 1 · NGC 1952

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M1 Crab Nebula

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M1 Crab Nebula

This is my image of the Crab Nebula also known as Messier 1 (M1). It is very dim and small, so it is considered a challenge to image in the astrophotography community. Charles Messier mistook this faint fuzzy patch for a comet. When learning that it was not a comet, it inspired him in 1774 to create his famous catalog of 110 deep sky objects. In reality, the Crab Nebula is a remnant of a supernova that occurred in 1054 AD which was recorded by Chinese astronomers. It is 6,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. It has a diameter of 11 light years and continues to expand at a rate of 1,500 kilometers per second. At the heart of M1 is a rapidly spinning neutron star, also known as a pulsar, which illuminates the nebula and emits massive amounts of gamma radiation.

Tiny, dim objects like this are very difficult to locate with your telescope even with a fancy computerized mount. I learned a process called plate solving to find M1. This uses software to take an image of what your scope is currently seeing, comparing that to calibrated images of the night sky, solving the precise location you are looking at, and then correcting the scope to your desired target. This technology is a real game changer for me and will save a lot of time hunting for deep sky objects. I also used a special filter that cuts out unwanted wavelengths, thus enhancing color. This image is a stack of 27 180-second ISO 12800 exposures at 2350mm focal length, calibrated with 10 dark frames, 20 bias frames, 20 flat frames, and then post-processed in Photoshop.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4491740
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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