M27, Dumbbell Nebula (May 2017)

M27 is found in Vulpecula and is one of the best telescopic sights of summer.  I have "discovered" it many times: most notably in 11x80 binoculars from the desert east of Reno and with an 80mm refractor in Bear Lake, Idaho.  Here is what it looks like with a color camera from my backyard in The Woodlands, TX, with narrowband data added.  I gathered 9x720" in H-alpha and 8x720" in OIII with the SXVF-H9 and combined this with 25x360" taken with the SXVF-H9C.  Of course, this is the big scope, the CFF 290mm Classical Cassegrain, at an effective focal length of about f/8.  The filters are Astronomik.  Guiding was done with an SX-OAG on a Takahashi NJP.

Dumbbell Nebula, M27, in OIII (Sept. 24, 2013)

Full resolution image here.

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