Tag: Dumbbell nebula

M27 Dumbbell nebula

Here comes another comparison between two cameras, telescopes and mounts. ZWO 1600 MC competes with Moravian G2 8300. Ritchey-Chrétien 154 mm competes with Newton 254mm f4 and Gemini G53f is challenged by iOptron CEM25P. I know it is incomparable aperture, price and portability, moreover the integration time is in favour of Newton, but I am very positively surprised by the outcome of the portable setup (ZWO, RC, iOptron). The nebula is logically better captured by the Newton, but RC telescope has definitely more regular star shapes (except the corners, there is quality quite poor).

Brief description of the Dumbbell nebula is here. Upper picture was made by heavy equipment (MII G2, Newton 254mm and Gemini G53f) and the lower picture was captured by portable setup (ZWO, RC 154 and iOptron).

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
RC 154/1370
Aperture:254 mm
154 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
917 mm
MountGemini G53f
iOptron CEM25P
AutoguidingTS 60 mm, FL240 mm, ZWO 174 MM
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
ZWO 1600 MC @ -15C
Corrector:GPU
Astro Physics CCDT67
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII, SII
Exposure:46xL 180s bin 1x1, 20xRGB 120s bin2x2
30x 180s Gain 300
Date:2017-08-31

M27 Dumbbell nebula

Dumbbell nebula is a planetary nebula located 1360 light-years from solar system in constellation Vulpecula (fox or little fox). Dumbbell was the first discovered planetary nebula by Charles Messier. It’s very popular deep space object for amateur astrophotographers, including me.

Actually, this is my second attempt of this planetary nebula. This time I concentrated on bi-color image composed of hydrogen alpha (Hα) and oxygen (OIII). This is because of the fact that the planetary nebulae contain these two gases. Hα was inserted into red channel and OIII into blue and green channel. Post processing was done in PixInsight software.

M27_Dumbbell_2015-08-22-30C-600s-10Ha11OIII-FL1000