Imaging the Dumbbell Nebula

The Dumbbell Nebula, M27, a planetary nebular in Vulpecula, is 6 arc mins across. Several images captured by amateurs on a variety of films and ccd chips are are presented here for comparison. Note: images have been rotated and resized to approximately align objects in the field. To view the original, unaltered files, click the images.

250 mm, Ektar 1000 film, 45 min
200 mm, Fujicolor SG+800, 20 min
250 mm, ST6 CCD Camera, 5 min
635 mm, ST6 CCD Camera, 3 x 5 min
355 mm, MX5-C CCD camera, 4 min
200 mm, ST7 (20 min) + ST6 colour data

Image obtained by Rob Conway on 03/20/94 with a 10" Meade LX200. He used Ektar 1000 color print film for the 45 minute guided exposure at f6 with no filter. Guiding was via a Giant Easy Guider and a 9mm illuminated reticle eyepiece. The resulting negative was processed at a one hour photo store, then scanned onto a kodak Photo CD.