M-1 Images

The Crab Nebula is the remains of a star that became a super novae in 1054 AD. At that time it was bright enough to be seen in daylight. Today it is only a dim patch of light in amateur scopes. To see it visually you really need dark skies, and a 6-8 inch scope. It is not an easy object to see visually because the surface brightness is very low, and if you have any light pollution it gets lost in the background. I have tried unsuccessfully on more than one occasion to see it with a 10" reflector from light polluted skies. Capturing a CCD image is much easier. Even with my 90 mm guide scope, I could see the outline of the image after only a two minute exposure.

		Scope: Orion MAK 500
		M-5C CCD Camera
		Focal Ratio: f5.5
		Exposure: 20 min
		Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
		MX-5C CCD Camera & STAR 2000
		Focal Ratio: f3.3
		Exposure: 20 min
		Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
		MX-5C CCD Camera using the Pixcolm track and accumulate feature
		Focal Ratio: f4.6
		Exposure: 30 min
This image shows the advantage of a longer exposure and the light pollution filter as much more of the fainter areas are captures.		Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
		MX-5C CCD, STAR 2000 and IDAS LPR
		Focal Ratio: f4.8
		Exposure: 50 min
		Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
		MX-5C CCD Camera & STAR 2000
		Focal Ratio: f10
		Exposure: 45 min
Click Here for a Larger Image		Link to Univ of Tenn Pulsar Page Multiwavelength Messier Museum Bill Blair's Crab Nebula Photo File National Optical Astronomy Observatory High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) Click here to link to Images taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Click here to link to an image by the HST Link to the SEDS M-1 Page
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M-1 "Crab Nebula"
The Crab Nebula is the remains of a star that became a super novae in 1054 AD. At that time it was bright enough to be seen in daylight. Today it is only a dim patch of light in amateur scopes. To see it visually you really need dark skies, and a 6-8 inch scope. It is not an easy object to see visually because the surface brightness is very low, and if you have any light pollution it gets lost in the background. I have tried unsuccessfully on more than one occasion to see it with a 10" reflector from light polluted skies. Capturing a CCD image is much easier. Even with my 90 mm guide scope, I could see the outline of the image after only a two minute exposure.
	Constellation: Tarus Size: 6 x 4 arcmin RA: 05h 34m 30.0s Dec: 22 d 01m 00s