Observation by David Davies: M76

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Observer

David Davies

Observed

2014 Dec 13 - 08:52

Uploaded

2014 Dec 13 - 08:53

Objects

The Little Dumbbell Nebula (M76)

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Constellation

Perseus

Field centre

RA: 01^h42^m
Dec: +51°32'
Position angle: +176°25'

Field size

0°23' × 0°17'

Equipment

QSI 583

Exposure

6 hours

Target name

M76

Title

M76

About this image

Once you have taken your filtered images in narrowband you have the decision as to how to compile them to best show the object. In this case, David tried both a Hubble palette (red, green, blue is derived from sulphur, hydrogen and oxygen, respectively) and the less frequently seen HOS palette (red, green, blue is derived from hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur, respectively). He found that the Hubble palette gave a predominantly blue image from which it was difficult to tease out any detailed structure. By contrast the HOS palette yielded a green/yellow and red image and more of the detail could be teased out by tweaking the colour balance in Photoshop. So that was the version David chose to present.

Six hours of data were captured, in 20 minute subs, equally split between hydrogen-alpha, oxygen III and sulphur II. Equipment details are:

Telescope: 254 mm Newtonian with Tele Vue Paracorr at F/4.5.
Camera: QSI 583wsg with Astrodon 3 nm narrow band filters.
Off-axis guiding by SX Lodestar.
Focussing by Scopefocus using Nebulosity for image capture
Mount: EQ6 controlled by EQMOD

Image processing by Pixinsight and Photoshop.

Files associated with this observation

wk51_14_m76_davies.jpg (48.5 kB)

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