Planetary nebula NGC 7008, Cygnus
A planetary nebula is formed when a star puffs off its outer layers and these expand into space. They are not related to planets, but rather looked like planets to early telescope users - hence the name.
This is an image from April this year, but as with so many of my deep sky work I've included frames taken in previous sessions to reduce noise and therefore to help show subtler details.
29 x 1-minute unguided frames at ISO 6400 (new data) and 15 x 5-minute manually-guided frames at ISO 1600 (older data from 2013 and 2014). Modified EOS 600D & Revelation 12" f/4 Newtonian reflector telescope.
Frames registered and stacked in DeepSkyStacker software; curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; noise and light pollution colour gradients reduced in CyberLink PhotoDirector. I also used Noel Carboni's astronomy tools in Photoshop Elements to reduce the prominence of the stars (which otherwise dominate after stretching the contrast).
Planetary nebula NGC 7008, Cygnus
A planetary nebula is formed when a star puffs off its outer layers and these expand into space. They are not related to planets, but rather looked like planets to early telescope users - hence the name.
This is an image from April this year, but as with so many of my deep sky work I've included frames taken in previous sessions to reduce noise and therefore to help show subtler details.
29 x 1-minute unguided frames at ISO 6400 (new data) and 15 x 5-minute manually-guided frames at ISO 1600 (older data from 2013 and 2014). Modified EOS 600D & Revelation 12" f/4 Newtonian reflector telescope.
Frames registered and stacked in DeepSkyStacker software; curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; noise and light pollution colour gradients reduced in CyberLink PhotoDirector. I also used Noel Carboni's astronomy tools in Photoshop Elements to reduce the prominence of the stars (which otherwise dominate after stretching the contrast).