The Crab Nebula
Image details:
This is the fabulous Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus (the Bull). What we see here are the remains of a star that went supernova (exploded violently). In 1050 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" in the skies in precisely this position. When stars go supernova, they can temporarily produce more light than the entire galaxy in which they are contained, and this star was no exception; for weeks it was visible in broad daylight.
What remains now are glowing tendrils of hydrogen gas that seem woven among a ghostly bluish glow. At the center of this cloud is the fading ember of the original star, an intriguing object with roughly the mass of our sun, but compressed to the size of a city: a neutron star. Highly magnetized, and spinning at a fantastic rate of 33 times per second, it sends out powerful radio pulses that can be picked up here on Earth. It is this same spinning motion that provides the energy that lights up the Crab Nebula.
Techincal details:
Optics: 8" inch SCT
Mount: Celestron AVX.
Camera: Canon 60D prim focused
Guiding: Orion starshoot autoguider
Location: Taken at my backyard observatory in Northwest Missouri
Date: November 26-2016
Exposure: 15x180sec no darks ISO-1600
Processing: Images plus (TRNT, combined adative add) Photoshop cs5 (curves, highpass filter, levels, hues stauration)
This is the fabulous Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus (the Bull). What we see here are the remains of a star that went supernova (exploded violently). In 1050 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" in the skies in precisely this position. When stars go supernova, they can temporarily produce more light than the entire galaxy in which they are contained, and this star was no exception; for weeks it was visible in broad daylight.
What remains now are glowing tendrils of hydrogen gas that seem woven among a ghostly bluish glow. At the center of this cloud is the fading ember of the original star, an intriguing object with roughly the mass of our sun, but compressed to the size of a city: a neutron star. Highly magnetized, and spinning at a fantastic rate of 33 times per second, it sends out powerful radio pulses that can be picked up here on Earth. It is this same spinning motion that provides the energy that lights up the Crab Nebula.
Techincal details:
Optics: 8" inch SCT
Mount: Celestron AVX.
Camera: Canon 60D prim focused
Guiding: Orion starshoot autoguider
Location: Taken at my backyard observatory in Northwest Missouri
Date: November 26-2016
Exposure: 15x180sec no darks ISO-1600
Processing: Images plus (TRNT, combined adative add) Photoshop cs5 (curves, highpass filter, levels, hues stauration)
