Messier Catalog » M1 — NGC 1952 Crab Nebula
Detailed Crab Nebula
This is a detailed rendering of the crab nebula using a combination of broadband and SHO filters.
Colors of the Crab
This was a focused capture using 5-minute exposures over two nights with the Optolong L-eXtreme filter. The Crab Nebula was mistaken for a comet by astronomer Charles Messier in the late 1600s. Frustrated, he started a catalog of 'things to avoid' and the Crab was awarded Messier 1 or M1 for short. I wonder what his reaction would have been had he used an EdgeHD instead?
The Crab in 2023
To start the new year, I imaged the first item in the Messier catalog on the first day of the year. Coincidentally, M1 was the first deep space object and nebula I photographed. This is a stack of several nights of 5-minute exposures that sum to just over seven hours of integration time.
M1: The Crab Nebula
It started as a supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 AD. M1, the Crab Nebula, is the expanding remnant of that millenia old explosion.
M1: The Crab Nebula Test Shot
My first ever astrograph taken with the Celestron EdgeHD 9.25 SCT.
A Crab Deconvoluted
The first nebula I photographed is also the first item in the Messier Catalog. M1, also referred to as the Crab Nebula, is the remnant of a supernova estimated to have occurred less than 10,000 years ago, with the light taking around 6500 yeas to reach us. At the center sits a spinning neutron star. I decided to revisit M1 as my project for the week. This is the result of 6 hours of exposure over three nights. Processed a second time with BlurXTerminator.
RA
5h 34.5m
Dec
22°1
Magnitude
8.4 ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪⚫⚫
Size
6.0x4.0
Distance
6,300 light years
Season
❄ Winter
Difficulty
🟡 Moderate