| Owl Nebula M97 and Galaxy M108 in Ursa Major - DSLR |
In the upper left of this image, the Owl Nebula taunts us "behind blue eyes." This planetary nebula is the ghost-like outer shell of gas blown off by a dying star, at a
distance of about 3000 light years. Discovered in 1781, even small telescopes can detect the faint hollow eyes of the nebula, which earned its name in 1848. In the lower
right of this image, Galaxy M108 lies over a thousand times further away, at a distance of 45 million light years. Its spiral form is concealed by its nearly edge-on orientation.
The image above combined twelve 3-minute exposures using Canon 60Da DSLR through a TEC140 telescope on an AP 900 GTO mount, for a total exposure time of 36
minutes. The exposures did not use either darks or flats. Image acquisition and stacking was performed with Maxim DSLR. I think that this image compares favorably
with my cooled dedicated CCD images, that you can see below.
The image below combined 2 hours 35 minutes of Luminance exposures with 20 minutes of green and red and 30 minutes of blue exposures, using an ST10XME camera
through the same TEC 140 mm refractor.
distance of about 3000 light years. Discovered in 1781, even small telescopes can detect the faint hollow eyes of the nebula, which earned its name in 1848. In the lower
right of this image, Galaxy M108 lies over a thousand times further away, at a distance of 45 million light years. Its spiral form is concealed by its nearly edge-on orientation.
The image above combined twelve 3-minute exposures using Canon 60Da DSLR through a TEC140 telescope on an AP 900 GTO mount, for a total exposure time of 36
minutes. The exposures did not use either darks or flats. Image acquisition and stacking was performed with Maxim DSLR. I think that this image compares favorably
with my cooled dedicated CCD images, that you can see below.
The image below combined 2 hours 35 minutes of Luminance exposures with 20 minutes of green and red and 30 minutes of blue exposures, using an ST10XME camera
through the same TEC 140 mm refractor.
Music: Behind Blue Eyes, by the Who
