M76 - The Little Dumbell

Planetary Nebula in Perseus

Uploaded 11/18/06

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This is my deepest image yet of this celestial splendor, a dying star in the winter Milkyway. Extreme care was taken to ensure correct coloration on both the stars and nebula when the luminance was incorporated.

Description: Composed of two parts, NGC650 & NGC651 this 12.2 magnitude planetary nebula displays very clearly the twin hoops or ears that are known to follow the magnetic field lines of the central star. With a size of 170 arcseconds, it rates as one of the larger of such objects with a 16th magnitude central star.

Processing notes: The LRGB color correction technique was used to its fullest capacity here, to enable the enhanced LRGB to match the G2V calibrated RGB image as closely as possible. A screened duplicate layer was combined with the luminance data using a mask made from the image itself, converted to a negative. This enabled rich detail in both the brightest and dimmest areas of nebulosity.

Instrument: 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian Platform: Astrophysics 1200 QMD CCD Camera: SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Water Cooling Guider: SBIG ST4 Exposure: HaRGB = 80:20:20:20 (RGB NOT Binned) RGB Combine Ratio: 1: 1.05: 1.11 Filters: AstroDon RGB Tricolor Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing FWHM = 5 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 8/10 Outside Temperature: 35 F CCD Temperature: -30 C Processing Tools: Maxim DL, Gralaks Sigma, Photoshop, PixInsight, Starizona Debloomer. HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS
 

 
 


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