Finally, clear skies again. I took a few images of M27 through an OIII filter in June and have wanted to go back to it. This nebula is so dramatic in the light of ionized oxygen! In fact, this nebula is quite a sight no matter how you look at it. This summer while observing the excellent skies near Bear Lake, Utah, I glimpsed M27 in a low-power eyepiece through my SV80ED. The nebula looked like a cotton ball, round and puffy, floating in the Milky Way! M27 lies roughly 1,300 lights years distant in the constellation Vulpecula.
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (OIII: 9x1200"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik OIII
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX
2 comments:
Very nice detail on that--especially the faint bits "above" and "below" in the image. I wonder about the dark bit near the edge in about the 1 o'clock position. Is it a shadow? I've seen it in other OIII images of M27.
Thanks, Rory. I don't know. I have some preliminary Ha-NII data as well. I expect the Ha to fill that in partly, as I've seen in others. It's M27's shape in 3D I'd like to see. I'm currently baffled by what is front and what is less-front.
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