Saturday 13 October 2012

M27 (DUMBELL NEBULA)

Second image from last night is of M27 (The Dumbell Nebula).

This was a real pain to edit with limited editing skills but considering it was an unguided 90 sec stack at ISO800 under badly Light Polluted skies, I'm still pleased to have managed to image it.

The Dumbell Nebula (also known as M27 or NGC 6853)  is another of the Planetary Nebulas. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764.

Planetary Nebula are generally faint objects and are a relatively short lived phenomenon, lasting a few tens of thousands of years.

The name "Planetary" originated with the first discovery in the 18th century because of the similarity in appearance to giant planets when viewed through small optical telescopes.

Click to Enlarge

 SO, you ask?

Why are these objects called "M" or "Messier"?

Charles Messier (26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817) was a French astronomer most notable for publishing an astronomical catalogue consisting of deep sky objects such as nebulae and star clusters that came to be known as the 110 "Messier Objects". The purpose of the catalogue was to help astronomical observers, in particular comet hunters such as himself, distinguish between permanent and transient visually diffuse objects in the sky.

Charles Messier






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