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Photographer:

Peter Nerbun

Location of Photo:

Perry Hall, Maryland USA

Date/Time of photo:

Feb 2017 over a period of 468 minutes

Equipment:

C11 SCT, On-Axis Guider (ONAG), ATIK 460EX main imaging camera, Lodestar X2 guide camera, Losmandy G11 mount, RGB & 3nm Ha filters, HSM Stepper Motor for Starlight Feather Touch fine Micro-Focuser, Digital Boss II Focuser Control System, F/6.3 Reducer, Orion Nautilus motorized filter wheel, Spike-a Flat Field panel

Description:

My image shows the the Crab Nebula which is a supernova remnant resulting from the explosion of a massive star first seen on Earth in the year 1054 AD. In this image I enhanced the Red channel data with Hydrogen-Alpha channel data. Then I combined this enhanced Red channel data with the Green and Blue channel data to yield an HA_R-G-B image of the nebula. I recorded 105 minutes of H-alpha data, 105 minutes of Red channel data, 114 minutes of Green channel data and 144 minutes of Blue channel data over 4 nights in Feb 2017. The size of the Crab Nebula is 11 light years long and 8 light years wide; it is located 6,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The orange filaments in my image are remnants of the original star's atmosphere. Please note the light blue-green glow within the nebula; a small centrally located neutron star spins at 30 revolutions per second. This "pulsar" generates a magnetic field having field lines about which high energy electrons spiral; these spiraling electrons emit synchrotron radiation in the form of high energy photons that are responsible for the light blue-green glow concentrated in the center of my image.

Website:

https://www.howardastro.org/halgal/main.php?g2_itemId=6801

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