M27 Dumbbell Nebula

This came out a little better than I anticipated, only because I had left my camera at ISO3200!!!! When I set up my shots, I usually take a 30 second exposure at ISO3200 to make sure the object is well-centered. I did that as usual, but then forgot to take the ISO down to my usual settings (800 or 640) for my light frame acquisition. So, it's a bit busier than normal and I seemed to have collected a lot of data (check out all those background stars!) AND it took forever to process as a result. Lesson learned! Anyway, it's my best M27 shot yet, I think. Nice color and shape to the object itself.

Image Details:

• Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
• Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000
• Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
• Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
• Mount: Celestron CGEM
• Exposures: 8 * 7 minute lights, dark and bias frames
• ISO 3200! (oops)
• Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
• Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation, curves and unsharp mask)
• Noise Reduction in NeatImage (Filter and Sharpen)

M27 Dumbell Nebula

Not a bad night, tonight! Very clear, but it was a bit hazy. Still, I decided to go out and shoot some nebulas. M27 was actually a last minute decision as a mate of mine was observing it through his LX200 and it looked pretty bright, as well as being close to the zenith. Anyway, not a bad result and it's better than what I shot two years ago! I'll keep working on the post-processing and see if I can get a better result.

It's very cool that I can now shoot 5 minute light frames with guiding. Excellent stuff! Need to get out to a real dark sky site to get some better photons...

Image Details

* Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
* Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
* Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
* Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
* Exposures: 4 * 5 minute lights, 4 * 5 minute darks
* ISO 800
* Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
* Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)

Cropped @ 100%:

M27 - Better Attempt (?)

Last night despite shooting M15, my real target was the M27 "Dumbbell" nebula again. It's one of the brightest targets up there right now and is just past zenith, so it makes for a good target. I focused more on proper polar alignment using a combination of iterative alignment and retraining my periodic error correction mechanism on the LX200. I also made sure to grab a few dark frames this time around to counter noise from the light frames. The result is better than my first attempt for sure, as you can see nicer transparency within the nebula itself, revealing some interesting star detail.

Image Details:
14 minutes total exposure time (7 * 2 minute exposures)
4 * 2 minute dark frames
ISO1600
Nikon D40
Meade LX200 8" @ F6.3
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Mild sharpening in Photoshop
Noise reduction in Neat Image

Click on image for full size

M27

Okay, below is my first attempt at M27, the "Dumbbell" planetary nebula. Prior to taking this shot, I utilized the "Smart mode" on the LX200 scope. This mode enables you to "teach" the telescope to correct itself of any declination and right ascension errors associated with polar drift and motor nuances. I used Vega as my guide star and "taught" the telescope for 200 seconds. Afterward, despite wind movement there was no drift at all, enabling me some longer exposures than normal.

The nebula was first discovered by Charles Messier in 1764, and lies 1,360 light years from Earth.

This isn't a brilliant image. The 10MPH wind gusts jolted my scope around while I was taking exposures, even though I had excellent polar alignment. Silly to have tried but oh well.

Image Details:

• ISO1600
• 8* 1.5 minute exposures
• Meade LX200 8" F6.3
• Nikon D40
  
• Stacked and initial processing in Deep Sky Stacker
• Mild Sharpening in Photoshop
• Noise Reduction in NeatImage freeware trial version