M27 - Dumbell Nebula

Constellation: Vulpecula
Distance: 1360 light years
Magnitude: 7.5
Size: 8 arcminutes

This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. It is easily visible in binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes.

All time combined data



Processing Date: 2009-10-07
Location: South Common Observatory
Scope: Astro Professional 102ED @ F/7
Scope: Celestron C8 @ F/7
Camera: Starlight Xpress SXV-H9
Guide Scope: Williams Optics Zenithstar 66mm
Guide Camera: SX Guidehead
Exposure (Ha): 17391 seconds (avg exp 561 seconds)
Exposure (OIII): 12294 seconds (avg exp 683 seconds)
Exposure (Hb): 3600 seconds


Cropped and sharpened data






Date: 2009-05-22 & 25
Location: South Common Observatory
Scope: Astro Professional 102ED @ F/7
Camera: Starlight Xpress SXV-H9
Guide Scope: Williams Optics Zenithstar 66mm
Guide Camera: SX Guidehead
Exposure (Ha from 2009-05-25): 3 x 1200 seconds
Exposure (Ha from 2009-05-22): 12 x 300 seconds




What a difference a year makes! This is my first narrowband image of M27.
Date: 2009-05-22
Location: South Common Observatory
Scope: Astro Professional 102ED @ F/7
Camera: Starlight Xpress SXV-H9
Guide Scope: Williams Optics Zenithstar 66mm
Guide Camera: SX Guidehead
Exposure (Ha as Red): 12 x 300 seconds
Exposure (OIII as Green): 9 x 300 seconds
Exposure (Hb as Blue): 11 x 300 seconds




This is getting to be a habit!  Now using Noel Carboni's tools, this is my 4th try!



Another attempt at processing.



Another processing session on this image (oh, what to do whilst its daytime!) - this time, I combined using the Sigma Clip algorithm, DDP processed, and then aligned and combined LRGB images.  It definately seems to bring out more of the nebulosity doing it this way.


Same image - reprocessed again to attempt to remove the sky gradient.




A crop, colour adjust, and unsharp mask of the image below.



Date: 2008-08-02
Object: Messier 27 - Dumbell Nebula
Scope: GS 153mm Newtonian
Camera: SXV-H9
Guide Scope: Williams Optics ZS66
Guide Camera: SX Guidehead
Exposure: 300 seconds Luminance and 100 seconds RGB
Images: 8 Luminance, 5 each RGB



Date: 2008-08-02
Object: Messier 27 - Dumbell Nebula
Scope: GS 153mm Newtonian
Camera: SXV-H9
Guide Scope: Williams Optics ZS66
Guide Camera: SX Guidehead
Exposure: 300 seconds
Images: 6


Date: 2008-08-02
Object: Messier 27 - Dumbell Nebula
Scope: GS 153mm Newtonian
Camera: SXV-H9
Guide Scope: Williams Optics ZS66
Guide Camera: SX Guidehead
Exposure: 300 seconds
Images: 1!

Information about M27