M27, Dumbbell Nebula


Mix of H-alpha / sG / OIII with H-alpha / OIII / OIII (50% opacity), full field of view (click image for 1440 x 1080 pixels resolution)


Mix of H-alpha / sG / OIII with H-alpha / OIII / OIII (50% opacity), cropped at 50% of full resolution (click image for 1440 x 1080 pixels at full resolution) 


H-alpha / sG / OIII, cropped at 50% of full resolution (click image for 1440 x 1080 pixels at full resolution)


H-alpha / OIII / OIII, cropped at 50% of full resolution (click image for 1440 x 1080 pixels at full resolution)


Side by side comparison
  • Exposure time: 240 minutes (6x 1200s H-alpha + 6x 1200s OIII)
  • Processing: Nebulosity 2.3 (pre-processing, stacking, Lanczos resampling); RegiStax 5.1 (waveletting) and Adobe Photoshop CS4 (post-processing)
  • Lens/telescope: INTES 150 mm (6") MK-69 at f/6 with Baader H-alpha 7 nm and OIII 8 nm narrowband filters
  • Camera: SBIG ST-8300M (T: -23 degrees Celsius)
  • Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO (guide rate: 1x, PEM activated)
  • Guiding: TS OAG + SX Lodestar + PHD (settings other than default: RA Aggressiveness 70; RA Hysteresis 20; Min. motion (pixels) 0.35)
  • Location: Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
  • Date: June 4 - 5, 2010
  • Notes:
The bicolour technique of Steve Cannistra was used to create a synthetic green (sG) channel with the H-alpha and OIII data. This results in a more "realistic" look of colours than the Hubble or CFHT false colour palettes. I have displayed the H-alpha channel, OIII channel and H-alpha / sG / OIII image at the animation below.




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