Object:The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, M 27, or NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at about 1227 light-years. This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. At its brightness of visual magnitude 7.5 and its diameter of about 8 arcminutes, it is easily visible in binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes.
Like many nearby planetary nebulae, the Dumbbell contains knots. Its central region is marked by a pattern of dark and bright cusped knots and their associated dark tails (see picture). The knots vary in appearance from symmetric objects with tails to rather irregular tail-less objects. Similarly, to the Helix Nebula and the Eskimo Nebula, the heads of the knots have bright cusps which are local photoionization fronts.
Taken: June 17, 2020
Telescope: Astro-Tech 14” RC with Starizona Apex ED 0.65x reducer
Mount: Paramount ME II unguided
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC-Pro (cooled to -10C; Gain: Unity gain) Bin 1×1.
Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Rotator: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Filters used: Optolong L-eNhance on a ZWO 8 position filter wheel
Exposures: 44×90 seconds for a total exposure time of 1.1 hours; calibrated with 40 dark frames, 40 flat frames with 100 bias frames.
Seeing Conditions:
Software:
Post processed with PixInsight and Photoshop CC 2020.
Image capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Comment: This is an object I have taken many times and each time I hope to improve on the previous. This time I used the Optolong L-eNhance filter with my OSC camera, and increased the number of subframes and exposure time. Also used new post processing techniques in PixinSight such as deconvolution.