Object: M 1 The Crab Nebula
The
Crab Nebula (catalog designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova
remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The common name
comes from a drawing resembling a crab with arms produced by William Parsons,
3rd Earl of Rosse, in 1842 or 1843 using a 36-inch (91 cm) telescope. The
nebula was discovered by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. It corresponds
with a bright supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 as a guest
star. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified that corresponds
with a historically observed supernova explosion.
At an
apparent magnitude of 8.4, comparable to Saturn’s moon Titan, it is not
visible to the naked eye but can be made out using binoculars under favorable
conditions. The nebula lies in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, at
about 6,500 light-years from Earth. It has a diameter of 11 light years,
corresponding to an apparent diameter of some seven arcminutes. It is
expanding at about 1,500 kilometers per second (930 mi/s), or 0.5% of the
speed of light.
Taken: December 7, 2024
Telescope: Astro-Tech 14 inch RC with Starizona Apex ED 0.65x reducer
Mount: Paramount ME II unguided
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro (cooled to 0C; Gain: 100) Bin 1×1.
Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Rotator: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Guiding: Unguided
Filters used: Chroma Ha, OIII and SII with a ZWO 7-position Electronic Filter Wheel for 2" Filters
Exposures: 80×90 seconds Ha, 69×90 seconds OIII, and 56×90 seconds SII for a total exposure time of 5.125 hours; calibrated with 40 dark frames, 40 flat frames with 40 dark-flats.
Seeing Conditions:
Image capture and telescope control: Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (N.I.N.A.) and TheSkyX Pro with a SkyShed POD MAX observatory.
Processed with PixInsight, Photoshop CC 2024