- Exposure: RGB
- All exposures binned 2x2
- R 8x250s, G 8x185s, B 8x300s
- Telescope: Stellarvue SV152 @ f/7.9
- Mount: MI-250 GoTo
- Camera: SBIG ST-10XME CCD, SBIG CFW-8
- SBIG Standard RGB filters
- Location: My backyard in Santa Barbara, CA
- Date/Time:
- December 5-6, 2005, 23:34-01:56 PST
- Processing: Taken in CCDSoft using CCDCommander. Reduced in CCDSoft. Aligned with RegiStar. Combined sub-exposures with Ray Gralak's Sigma Clip. DDP in MaxIm. Color combine, levels, selective blur, saturation in Photoshop.
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- Name: M1, The Crab Nebula, NGC1952
- Type: Supernova remnant
- Constellation: Taurus
- Distance: 7000 light years
- Physical Diameter: ~10 light years (and expanding)
- About the Crab Nebula:
This nebula was formed as a result of an exploding star that was visible on Earth in 1054 AD. The exploding star was bright enough to be visible in daylight for months! The resulting star is just barely discernable above in the middle of the nebula in the above image. In the middle is an "optical" double star - two stars close only from our perception - and the lower star is what is left of the explosion.
The star is now a fast spinning Pulsar. It is about the same mass as our Sun, but is only 6 miles across! The star spins at a rate of about 30 times a second and emits a very large amount of energy.
The resulting nebula is undergoing "rapid" change as well. The gas cloud is expanding very quickly. In images taken of this nebula over the years, the growth of the nebula is amazingly obvious.
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