This is the field in Vulpecula the Fox that contains the famous planetary nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula aka Messier 27, at left, but also the faint emission nebulas NGC 6820 at right and Sharpless 2-88 above it. The small star cluster below centre is NGC 6830. A small star cluster, NGC 6823, lies embedded in NGC 6820. The field is yellowed by the interstellar dust reddening distant objects. This is a blend of filtered and unfiltered stacks: 18 x 6-minutes at ISO 2500 through the IDAS NB1 dual narrowband filter, and 16 x 3-minutes at ISO 1000 with no filter, all through the SharpStar 61 EDPHII apo refractor at f/4.6 with its reducer/flattener, and with the red-sensitive Canon Ra, all on the Star Adventurer GTi mount/tracker, autoguided with the Lacerta MGENIII autoguider, taken as part of testing the mount. No darks or LENR applied here, but the autoguider applied some dithering offset between each frame, to cancel out thermal noise hot pixels when the sub-frames were aligned and stacked. Taken Sept. 24/25, 2022 from home in Alberta on a very clear cool night. Shooting and then blending filtered with unfiltered shots provides the best of both worlds: the reddish nebulosity set in a sky preserving natural coloured stars and background tints. Nebulosity was brought out with DM1 and DM2 luminosity masks created with the Lumenzia plug-in panel for Photoshop. Finishing touches with a Paint Contrast layer added with TK Actions panel, and a mild application of the Nebula Filter from the PhotoKemi action set both boosted the nebulosity a bit more. All stacking, aligning and blending done in Adobe Photoshop.
M27 with 130mm Astro-Physics apo at f/6 with no field flattener (slight camera tilt results in more coma at left of frame), for stack of 6 c 8 minute exposures at ISO 800 with Canon 7D (stock camera, not modified). Auto-guided with SG4. Worked perfectly.
Messier 27, the Dumbbell Nebula, in Vulpecula, a superb example of a planetary nebula and one of the best known and widely observed objects in its class. This is a stack of 12 x 6-minute exposures with the Canon R5 in cropped-frame mode and at ISO800, on the Astro-Physics AP130mm apo refractor at f/6 and with the 6x7 field flattener. Auto-guided with the Lacerta MGENIII stand-alone autoguider. No filters employed. Taken from home on a superb night, August 13, 2023. No darks employed; the dithering eliminated all the thermal noise hot pixels, and there were a lot this very warm night.
