Cropped View.

Four Hours of M1. This is one of the last images I shot using the QHY8 OSC CCD camera, I didn’t process it then as I really didn’t think it turned out that great, with a OSC camera this object needs a minimum of 6 hours IMHO

M1 The Crab Nebula (NGC 1952, Taurus A)

November 12th 2009

QHY8 Gain 1% Offset 130

16 subs 900 seconds (4 hours), with flat and bias frames

TMB 130SS using AT 2" Field Flattener

Autoguided with Orion Auto Guider on TMB 80SS

CGE PRO Mount

Image acquired with Nebulosity II, Stacked with Nebulosity II and processed with Photoshop CS3, with tools Noise Ninja and Astra Image's Wavelet Sharpen.

Comments Welcome

Clear Skies

Terry

www.downunderobservatory.com

The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. At X-ray and gamma-ray energies, the Crab is one of the strongest persistent sources in the sky.

At the center of the nebula lies the Crab Pulsar, a rotating neutron star, which emits pulses of radiation from gamma rays. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a historical supernova explosion.

The creation of the Crab Nebula corresponds to the bright SN 1054 supernova that was recorded by Chinese astronomers and Arab astronomers in 1054 AD. The Crab Nebula itself was first observed in 1731 by John Bevis. The nebula was independently rediscovered in 1758 by Charles Messier as he was observing a bright comet. Messier catalogued it as the first entry in his catalogue of comet-like objects.

The Crab Nebula video by NASA and the analysis of early photographs of the nebula taken several years apart revealed that it was expanding. Tracing the expansion back revealed that the nebula must have become visible on Earth about 900 years ago. Historical records revealed that a new star bright enough to be seen in the daytime had been recorded in the same part of the sky by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054.Given its great distance, the daytime "guest star" observed by the Chinese and Arabs could only have been a supernova—a massive, exploding star, having exhausted its supply of energy from nuclear fusion and collapsed in on itself. The supernova was visible to the naked eye for about two years after its first observation. Thanks to the recorded observations of Far Eastern and Middle Eastern astronomers of 1054, Crab Nebula became the first astronomical object recognized as being connected to a supernova explosion.