Dumbbell Nebula

This is the Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 27, or NGC 6853. It’s a planetary nebula roughly 1360 lightyears away. At its centre is a hot white dwarf, which is showering the gasses it shed while it was a red giant with UV rays. This causes the gasses to ionise, and subsequently glow.

  • Telescope: Skywatcher Classic 250P 10" Dobsonian 1200 FL
  • Tracking: Home built 2 circle segment equatorial platform
  • Camera: ZWO ASI533MM Pro, CMOS monochrome 3008x3008 3.76μm pixels, 200 gain
  • Integration: 63x8s red, 50x8s green, 63x8s blue, 49x8s luminance
  • Calibration: 78x8s darks, 104 biases
  • Image capture: OpenLiveStacker on Android phone.
  • Stacking: Siril
  • Post-processing: Gimp
  • Skies: Bortle 5 over suburban Canberra