Messier 27: Hantle Nebula
Messier 27
Messier 27, also known as the Dumbbell Nebula or NGC 6853, is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764—it was the first known nebula of this type. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with planets; in the past, through weak telescopes, it resembled a blurred planetary disk, which is where the name came from, and it has persisted to this day. The distance from us is 1227 light-years, and its age is estimated at 9800–14,600 years, depending on the measurement method.
The unusual color palette is the result of using Astrodon Sloan g’2, r’2, and i’2 filters. Their combined bandwidth is wider (400–850 nm) than in standard RGB (400–700 nm). As a result, some emission lines, e.g., Hα, fell into the r’2 channel (used as green) instead of red, giving the image this unusual appearance. This is my first attempt at an LRGB composition with added Hα. The data comes from a telescope that is no longer operational. Assembled with great difficulty in PixInsight. Link to full resolution + details in the comment.
I am happy that after 9 years I finally managed to process this data.
Technical details:
Telescope: Planewave CDK 12.5", focal length 2521mm, F/8.0 focal ratio Camera: FLI Proline 16803 Processing Software: PixInsight Observation Site: Nerpio, Spain (known for excellent astronomical seeing conditions)
Full resolution on astrobin.
