Simcoe Skies Astronomy

M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula

Most recent images are at the top of this page

	Oct 2006 version General info about this object More about Planetary Nebulae A collimated image with better processing technique Magnitude: 7.6 (surface brightness 11.47) Size: 6.5' Location: Vulpecula Date: Oct 7/06 Exp Details: RAW,A0;B50;GN51;GM52;R34B18;T20S Exposures: 64 of 120 K3 Brightness Level Meter: 130-150. Filters: Skyglow Filter Magnification: x1 (no barlow, no resizing) Notes: A good collimation resulted in a decent image. Lots of lessons learned since the last image 2 years ago. Stacking/processing and initial histogram adjustment in K3CCDtools. Subsequent levels adjustment in Photoshop, noise reduction with NeatImage. Stars are round (collimation) and don't have dark holes beside bright spots (camera in RAW mode). A longer exposure brought out more detail in the nebula.

	Sept 2004 data, reprocessed again in K3CCDtools Date: Sept 2/04 Exposures: 57 of 62 hand picked Exposure length: 12 seconds Amp on setting: OFF Brightness: 60% Gain: 70% Notes: At the sacrifice of some of the nebulosity, I adjusted the contrast in K3CCDtools histogram so that the amp glow was eliminated. Stars still have "ears" probably indicating drift from poor alignment. Color in this one is more vivid, and as always, I endeavored to keep the background stars "white" as a reference to true color.

	Sept 2004 This was my 2nd try Date: Sept 2/04 Exposures: 28 of 62 hand picked Exposure length: 12 seconds Amp on setting: OFF Brightness: 60% Gain: 70% Notes: Image has too much background brightness in upper left (amp glow) - over time I discovered that this was a result of insufficient average gain/brightness/exposure combination (an inadequate darkframe, so that the "true" dark is not actually subtracted). Stars are "ears" indicating either Periodic Error in the mount, or (more likely) drift. Nevertheless, there are some nice nuances of nebulosity showing in the bottom left.

	M27 - Dumbbell Nebula - first light This was one of thee shots taken on my first night out with the modified ToUcam. Date: Aug 26/04 Exposures: not recorded Exposure length: not recorded Amp on setting: ON Brightness: not recorded Gain: not recorded Notes: Too much blue! White balance was off, not corrected in histogram. Longer exposures needed!

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