New Images - The Crab and Dumbell Nebulae

With the string of nice clear nights recently, I finally got a chance to spent a good amount of time repairing both my mounts and then imaging some popular DSOs (Deep Space Objects).

First, the iOptron replacement mount was delivered last Friday from the manufacturer and the new mount (they finally agreed to replace the mount rather than try to fix it for the third time) now operates flawlessly. I was actually able to take a few 3 minute subs without autoguiding! Still need to do a few more tests, but it does look encouraging.

Now the main mount (CGEM) has been giving me trouble for the past 10 months, and I finally got around to readjusting the gear meshing. Then I reloaded the software that controls the mount. Alas, I finally got the mount to operate within specs once again. It seems like the combination of some mechanical adjustment and resetting the software parameters got it back to working order.

With the CGEM now able to track well enough for imaging at near prime focus, I was off to photographing a bunch of objects while the skies remained clear and the moon out of the picture.

So here are the first two objects of the five I imaged that I have processed.

M1 - October 21, 2017 - EdgeHD-11
40x180sec, f/7, -20C
QHY10 Camera

M1, the Crab Nebula, is a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus. Recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054, the nebula was observed later by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a historical supernova explosion. At an apparent magnitude of 8.4, comparable to that of Saturn's moon Titan, it is not visible to the naked eye but can be made out using binoculars under favourable conditions. The nebula lies in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of about 2.0 kiloparsecs (6,500 ly) from Earth. It has a diameter of 3.4 parsecs (11 ly), corresponding to an apparent diameter of some 7 arcminutes, and is expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometres per second (930 mi/s), or 0.5% of the speed of light.

M27 - October 19, 2017 - EdgeHD-11
26x180sec, f/7, -20C
QHY10 camera

M27, the Dumbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 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.