After waiting patiently for months over the summer astro-hiatus, I lugged the gear out last night beneath a crystal clear, moonless sky. To my chagrin, though, the wind soon picked up, rattling and bucking my telescope making it almost impossible to maintain a steady view of the stars. Still though, I managed to get something, although sadly it lacks detail and contrast due to the incessant buffeting of the careless wind.
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| M27, the Dumbell Nebula. Taken through 6" f/4 Newtonian telescope and Canon 1100D. 13 exposures of 60 seconds each and 10 dark frames, also of 60 seconds each. Processed in DeepSkyStacker 3.3.3 beta 51. Taken 29th September 2013, Aberdovey, Wales, UK. |
Against the velvety black, this beautiful planetary nebula hangs like a cosmic apple core. The overbearing blue comes from oxygen, with most of the red at the edges coming from excited hydrogen atoms. Once, the progenitor star, which was of a similar mass to the sun, cast off its outer layers at the end of its life, leaving this cloudy jewel within the interstellar medium. At its core lies the tiny and super dense white dwarf star, which is the only remaining part of the original. The cloud itself will dissipate over the coming millennia, where it will seed the cosmos with its material and lie in wait until, maybe, it is taken up and forms part of a new star, whereupon the cycle begins again.
I was disappointed with this, heartily so, though I expected little less with the conditions as they were. I shall undoubtedly return to this, my first ever planetary nebula, though whether it will be later this year or not until next depends upon the weather. As ever, the turning of the Earth is pushing this gem closer and closer to the edge of my field of view. Before long, the trees will conceal it from view, and I will be forced to wait until next summer to have another shot!
