Messier 27

Derby and District Astronomical Society

Messier 27 (NGC 6853)
The Dumbell Nebula

Planetary Nebula in Vulpecula RA 19h 59m 36s Dec +22° 43' 00"

Mike Lancaster captured this image of M27 on the 15th August 2023. The image comprises 85 x 10s exposures taken using an Altair Hypercam 26C at 300 gain (plus darks, flats and flat darks), through an Orion Optics UK AG12 Astrograph mounted on an EQ8 mount. A 0.95x Wynne Corrector and IDAS LPS-D3 filter were also employed. No guiding was used on account of the short exposures. Images were acquired using SharpCap, and the processing was entirely performed in PixInsight. Image © Mike Lancaster.

John Hill captured this image of M27 on the 14th May 2023. John used a ZWO 178MC camera through a Skywatcher StarTravel 120 telescope mounted on an HEQ5 Pro mount with ASIair Plus. 30 x 60s exposures (30 minutes) at 125 gain were processed in Deep Sky Stacker and GIMP. Darks, flats and bias frames were also taken. Image © John Hill.

This image of The Dumbbell Nebula comprises 12x300s separate images taken on the 8th June 2022 by Peter Branson. The total exposure time is 60 minutes. The camera used was a ZWO ASI533 cooled colour camera together with a TS Optics Photoline f7 telescope with a Hutech IDAS light pollution filter and field flattener, mounted on an NEQ6 mount. A filter wheel fitted with LRGBHa filters was used to capture these images (Luminance only). The images were stacked in Nebulosity, then PixInsight was used to remove background gradients and noise and some further post-processing including using levels and curves. Peter says - "M27 is a popular target with astro-photographers. There's lots of colour in the object and trying to get a balance is often a compromise. It usually ends up as just what looks aesthetically pleasing. I'm using PixInsight to also bring out the colours in the surrounding stars and that adds to the interest in the photos." Image © Peter Branson.

Mike Lancaster captured this image of M27 on the 8th August 2021. The image is comprised of 2 x 4 minute and 8 x 5 minute exposures taken with a Mallincam Universe camera at 16 dB gain through a 10" Meade ACF SCT on an EQ8 mount using a 0.5x Mallincam focal reducer. Processing was done in Nebulosity 4 and Photoshop Elements 2020. No guiding, darks or flats were used. Image © Mike Lancaster.

The following image of M27 was captured by Dave Selfe on the 18th July 2021. The image is comprised of 31 x 30 second exposures at ISO 800 captured using a Nikon D750 camera and Esprit 100 telescope. Image © Dave Selfe.

Mike Lancaster produced this image of the Dumbell Nebula on the 26th September 2014. It is a single 90 second exposure taken with a Mallincam Xtreme X2 colour camera at AGC 3 through a 10" Meade LX200 ACF SCT on an NEQ6 PRO mount using an MFR-5 focal reducer and Astronomik CLS CCD filter. The image was un-guided. Image capture was using Miloslick Mallincam Control software. Some processing was performed in Nebulosity v3.2. Additional processing was performed in Photoshop Elements using Gradient Xterminator and Astronomy Tools. Image © Mike Lancaster.

Chris Newsome and Adrian Brown imaged M27 on the 29th July 2007 using Chris' Celestron C8-NGT with Adrian's ATIK-16HR camera. This setup was guided with a Meade DSI camera through a Skywatcher 80T using MaximDL. The image is comprised of ten 90 second exposures (binned 2x2) in H-alpha and ten 90 second exposures (binned 2x2) in O-III. The images were combined in MaximDL and then processed in CS2. The H-alpha was assigned the red channel, the O-III assigned the blue channel and a synthetic green channel was created to produce the RGB image below. The image made Picture of the Week on the BAA website in August 2007. Image © Chris Newsome and Adrian Brown.

This image of M27 was captured by Adrian Brown on the 12th July 2007. He took 2 five minute images of M27, one in H-alpha and one in OIII, through his Orion 80ED refractor using an ATIK camera (guided by another ATIK camera on a Skywatcher 80T) on a Celestron CGE mount. Total exposure time - just 10 minutes at the scope. The raw images were then processed by Chris Newsome following Adrian's instructions. The H-alpha frame was assigned to a red colour and the OIII to blue in CS2. A synthetic green colour was created from this combination image to produce the final colour image. This was very slightly sharpened and then a slight Gaussian blur was added. Total processing - 10 minutes on the computer. Image © Adrian Brown and Chris Newsome.

Chris Newsome took the following image of The Dumbell Nebula on the 19th July 2006. He used a Celestron C8-NGT telescope with a Canon EOS 300D camera. This setup was guided by a Meade DSI camera and Skywatcher 80T telescope using a GPUSB interface and controlled with MaximDL. Twenty 4 minute exposures at 200 ASA were calibrated and combined in MaximDL and processed in CS2. Image © Chris Newsome.

The following image of M27 was taken by Chris Newsome on the 2nd June 2006. He used a Canon EOS300D camera through a Celestron C8-NGT telescope using a CLS filter. This set up was autoguided with a Meade DSI through a Skywatcher 80T refractor using MaximDL. The image is composed of fifteen 180 second exposures at 400 ASA, which were calibrated in MaximDL and then processed in CS2. Image © Chris Newsome.

Adrian Brown took the following Image of the Dumbell Nebula (M27) in Vulpecula on the 11th June 2005 using his new 80mm Skywatcher 80ED refractor. This has a focal length of 600mm. He used a monochrome ATK-2HS camera and some Astronomik RGB filters to create the colour image. The exposure details are 16 minutes Luminance (Clear Filter), 8 minutes Red, 8 minutes Green and 12 minutes Blue. Maxim DL 4.11 and Photoshop 7 were used to combine the luminance and colour frames into a single image. This image made Picture Of The Week on the British Astronomical Association (BAA) website on the 18th July 2005. Image © Adrian Brown.

Adrian Brown took the following image of the Dumbell Nebula M27 in Vulpecula on 28th May 2005. The image was taken with a C11 SCT at F6.3 and an ATK-2HS camera. K3CCDTools was used to capture and stack the 39 individual frames that were taken, each of 50 seconds exposure. Maxim DL 4.10 and Photoshop 7 were used to process the image and remove light pollution gradients. Adrian comments: 'M27 was really low down in the sky and the final stacked image was very faint. It took quite a bit of tweaking of the image histogram to brighten up the nebula'. Image © Adrian Brown.

[Top]