By Hassan Dadashi . arani | 2023-09-17
![Community photo entitled by Ernest Jacobs on 09/01/2023 at Eden, NY 14057](https://earthsky.org/upl/gravity_forms/6-d184048789a60d766a02a8e43117298b/2023/09/M27-PI1-09012023.jpg)
On 09/01/2023 11:00 pm by Ernest Jacobs| Eden, NY 14057
Messier 27 (M27), a.k.a The Dumbbell Nebula, captured from my backyard on 09/01/2023. M27 is a Planetary Nebula located in the constellation Vulpecula. It is fairly easy to observe visually in either binoculars or telescope. Use of Nebula filter (like a UHC or Oiii) can improve contrast, making the nebula "pop" in the eyepiece. This image was captured with a dual narrowband filter between my telescope and One Shot color Camera (OSC). This type of filter only allows specific wavelengths of light (Hydrogen-Alpha and Oiii) and is perfect for emission nebulae (Planetary Nebulae are subset of Emission Nebulae). The image was captured a couple of days past Full Moon, which would have been far more challenging (maybe impossible) without use of the filter.
Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 Essential Series Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme
Mount: Sky-Watcher USA EQ6-R Pro
Exposure: 45 exposures at 300 sec / Gain 100 / Offset 50 / -10°C each for a total exposure of 3.75 hours.
Software: NINA, SharpCap Pro, PHD2, and PixInsight
All post and pre processing were done in PixInsight (Subframe Selector, Blink, WBPP (2XDrizzle Integration & Autocrop), DBE, SPCC, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, HT, StarXTerminator, CT, SCNR, LHE, MMT & Pixel Math