Kwychang
M1 The Crab Nebula
Chinese astronomers in 1054 recorded a new 'star'. This new star was visible during the daytime for almost a month.
What they were actually witnessing was a supernova, the death of a star.
This particular star was about 6,500 light years away. They didn't know it at the time but, they were witnessing something that actually happened around 5,450 BC.
It's believed that the Crab Nebula is the remnants of that supernova.
M1 is six light years across!
It was first discovered in 1731 by John Bevis. M1 is what inspired Charles Messier to later start his now famous Messier catalogue. After he thought he'd found Halley's comet and realised it wasn't, he decided to make a list of things that weren't comets, and so therefore, not worth observing. Now, every astronomer and astrophotographer are fascinated by them.
BORING techie bit:
Captured using a Skywatcher Quattro 8" with f4 coma corrector on a HEQ5 mount.
Guided using an Altair 50mm guidescope and GPcam combo.
Canon 450D astro modified and with Astronomik CLS CCD APS-C clip in filter.
Location: Newhey, Rochdale, UK.
13 exposures of 3 minutes each. Stacked together with calibration frames using DSS and all processing done with StarTools.
M1 The Crab Nebula
Chinese astronomers in 1054 recorded a new 'star'. This new star was visible during the daytime for almost a month.
What they were actually witnessing was a supernova, the death of a star.
This particular star was about 6,500 light years away. They didn't know it at the time but, they were witnessing something that actually happened around 5,450 BC.
It's believed that the Crab Nebula is the remnants of that supernova.
M1 is six light years across!
It was first discovered in 1731 by John Bevis. M1 is what inspired Charles Messier to later start his now famous Messier catalogue. After he thought he'd found Halley's comet and realised it wasn't, he decided to make a list of things that weren't comets, and so therefore, not worth observing. Now, every astronomer and astrophotographer are fascinated by them.
BORING techie bit:
Captured using a Skywatcher Quattro 8" with f4 coma corrector on a HEQ5 mount.
Guided using an Altair 50mm guidescope and GPcam combo.
Canon 450D astro modified and with Astronomik CLS CCD APS-C clip in filter.
Location: Newhey, Rochdale, UK.
13 exposures of 3 minutes each. Stacked together with calibration frames using DSS and all processing done with StarTools.