Some Planetary Nebulae & my Cygnus Project

[ArmyAirForce]

Over the nights of September 2nd and 3rd, I finished my interactive Cygnus project that I started last year ( more of that below ). The last few pictures were some Planetary Nebulae. While on the hunt for these, I found a few more PN's to image, though none much more than 30 minutes exposure. By the end of the night on the 3rd, humidity was up around 90%, so less than ideal, but nice to catch them regardless.

NGC 40 the Tie Fighter ( Err, Bow Tie ) Nebula

NGC 6881

NGC 6884

NGC 7008

NGC 7009 The Saturn Nebula

NGC 7027

Messier 76 ( inset is the original image with a huge gradient from a near by street light )

My Cygnus Project was something I started last year; a wide field shot, which would then dictate which targets I chose to image close up. Most targets have had only about half an hour of exposure, as especially with the planetary nebulae, I knew many would be tiny targets, not much bigger than a star, and I didn't want to waste too much time on something hardly visible.

Here's a thumbnail of the area covered.

In time, once I have a small chip CCD, I'd like to revisit the nebulae to get better close up shots. It has also been a learning curve with regards to guiding, an OAG, and using a DSLR during the hot summer nights. The Nikon D50 is an old camera, with a noisy sensor and the well known Nikon 'Star Eater' median filter which it applies to all RAW images as it writes them to the memory card.

Despite the limitations of the equipment ( camera ), it's been an enjoyable project that has resulted in some half decent images ( especially the clusters ), and another couple of steps up on the learning curve that is image processing!

This link takes you to the Cygnus page, where clicking on the targets on the image will bring up ( hopefully ) my close up image of that area.

My Cygnus Project Page

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice collection of planetaries. I guess that last one should be M76 rather than M67 (open cluster) so I have corrected that

[nmoushon]

This is an awesome project! Very well done and the interactive website is really cool. (All the links work by the way) For only 30min of data, with your camera, for most the targets they have come out superb!

[ArmyAirForce]

Nice collection of planetaries. I guess that last one should be M76 rather than M67 (open cluster) so I have corrected that

oops