Messier #1 (The Crab Nebula)

Messier #1 (The Crab Nebula)

Taken: Jan.28th, 2008 at 27North
Camera: SBIG ST2000 XCM
Telescope: Celestron C-9.25 SCT (@ f/6.3)
Mount: Orion Atlas

Six 10 minute frames (1 hour of exposure)
Calibration, Alignment and Stacking with CCD Stack
Cropping to the subject, stretching and finish work in PhotoShop.

I never realized how small an object this is – compare this image to the full frame @ 1480mm focal length. I would like to shoot it again at prime focus (f/10 – 2350mm focal length) to fill the CCD frame better. Bennett Burbank and I have a little project going to try and get a really good version of this object using his Celestron C-11, which would be an even larger image. We still have tracking issues to work out so we’ll post the results once we get something worth seeing – it should be pretty darn good.