The Crab nebula is a supernova remnant, powered by a spinning neutron star that lies at the center of the nebula. It emits intense energy in many different wavelengths, which lights up the surrounding gas and stellar debris.
This was also the first deep-space object that I imaged with my new telescope, back in February 2017:
https://astrovirusblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/first-light-m1/
A year later, I imaged the Crab nebula again with a new camera (ASI1600MM-C) and hydrogen-alpha (Ha) filter.
The Ha data was used to enhance the color and detail in my DSLR image, by combining it with the red channel through PixInsight’s NBRGBCombination script. It’s fun to revisit older projects with new data!
Dates: 17 January 2017, 5 February 2018
Telescope: Teleskop-Service 80/480 triplet with 2″ TS 0.79X reducer/flattener
Cameras: Canon 450D, ZWO ASI1600MM-C with EFW-8 and ZWO 31 mm filters
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5 Pro
Exposure: 1.2 hours
RGB: 60 x 30 sec (ISO-800)
Ha 7 nm: 20 x 120 sec (gain: 200, bin 1×1, -15C)
Software: APT, PHD2, EQMOD, PixInsight
Astro Virus 