M27 - THE DUMBBELL NEBULA

The Dumbbell Nebula ­— also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853 — is a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox). The distance is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects. It consists of very rarified gas that has been ejected from the hot central star, now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.

This image is the culmination of 50 hours of data acquisition in Ha and Oiii. Thanks to Jeffrey Horne for some core processing work.

OTA: Celestron 11" Edge HD with .7x Focal Reducer

Mount: iOptron CEM120

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro

Gain: 100

Cooling Temperature: -10 degrees celsius

🔵Oiii - 871 x 120s

🔴Ha - 767 x 120s

Auto-guiding: ZWO ASI174MM Mini and ZWO OAG-L

Auto-focusing: ZWO EAF on 2" BDS-RT Baader Diamond Steeltrack Focuser

Control: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Calibrated and Processed in Pixinsight

Copyright: Drew Evans