M1 in Taurus 23rd March 2020 @ 21:21 UT
Visually in my 8" SCT, the Crab Nebula (M1) appears as a ghostly smudge suspended against the background of stars. Thanks to EAA the smudge in the same scope has colour and tendrils of colour.
Image: 15 seconds x 123 frames (1845 seconds total), gain 6584, bin 2x2, Raw 14, black level 99, camera temperature 9.7 deg C, 1 dark. Stacked in SharpCap Pro 3.2.6248.0. The image was stacked and adjusted in SharpCap. The image was scaled down in GIMP.
I let the camera soak up 30 minutes of photons for this object as I played with colour balance, sharpening and stretching the light curves. M1 sits in a rich field of stars and it was really enjoyable to watch each image stack. In the beginning you can really see the difference to the noise reduction each image brings and over time the internal structure came more and more visible.
Equipment: Celestron CPC-800 at F5.9, Alt-Az mount, Altair Astro Hypercam 294C Pro Cooled (fan), Celestron Focuser, CPWI controlled remotely via Microsoft RDP and ASCOM.
Astrometry: 6,200 light years distance. Charles Messier came across M1 in 1758.
