NGC1952
Images
When Charles Messier was looking for Halley's Comet, he kept coming across a fuzzy patch he realized didn't move like a comet. So, he started a journal of these annoying distractions and designated the fuzzy patch 'M1.' Ages ago, a massive star spent the last of its fusion fuel and experienced a massive implosion that happened so fast, the inner part of the star sent shockwaves that ejected the outer portion. When the light eventually reached earth, it was so bright it could be seen by day for several years. References around the world have been found for a 'wandering star' that suddenly appeared and eventually faded. I trained my telescope on the spot and recorded photons for 12 hours. I took 3-minute exposures in the red, green, and blue spectrums and combined them for the first image. I also took 5-minute exposures of hydrogen alpha and oxygen III emissions and 7-minute exposures of sulfur II. These mapped to a SHO palette and blended with the visible light data. Everything was captured using a ZWO 294MM Pro in the 'unlocked' bin 1x1 mode at 8k by 4k resolution, then cropped to spotlight the nebula.
2023-10-29
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.
2022-12-15
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.
2023-01-02
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?
2022-12-15
This is a detailed rendering of the crab nebula using a combination of broadband and SHO filters.
2022-10-01