The Crab Nebula (M1)
Crab Nebula
All Images Copyright Steve Cannistra

Please click here for a higher resolution image.
Please click here for an animation using my image and a composite image from the Chandra X-Ray telescope (large file!).
Please click here for a rollover showing the Chandra image superimposed over mine (hold mouse over M1).
Characteristics:
Magnitude:  9.0
Distance: 6500 light years
RA: 5h 34m 44s
Dec: 22 degrees 01' 04"

Description:
The Crab Nebula is the first in Messier's long list of DSOs.  It is a gasseous remnant of a supernova explosion that was observed in 1054 AD, visible in the daytime sky for over 3 weeks before fading.  At the heart of the nebula is a pulsar (rapidly rotating neutron star) that spins at a rate of 30 times per second (first detected by Jocelyn Bell as a graduate student in 1968).   The neutron star is a rich source of electromagnetic radiation over a broad range of wavelengths, including X-Ray, resulting in a dynamic view of this region as captured by time lapse movies obtained by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.  Supernova explosions such as this generally occur when stars greater than 1.4 solar masses exhaust their Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon, Oxygen, Silicon fuels (in sequence) and are left with an Iron core, which cannot undergo fusion.  The release of these elements via a supernova explosion permits the secondary formation of solar systems, planets, and lifeforms like ours.  The iron that forms an essential part of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in our blood was forged inside a star larger than our sun, and was released by a Supernova explosion like the Crab Nebula.  Here is a link to more information about Stellar Evolution.

Photographic Details:
Date:  January 21, 2004
Scope:  LX90 at f10 (no focal reducer).
Autoguider:  STV with e-finder.
Camera:  Canon 10D.
Filter:  IDAS LPS.
Exposures:  16 x 5' at ISO 1600.
Conditions:  Temperature 12 degrees F; good transparency; good seeing; dry; calm.
Post-processing:  Raw conversion, adaptive dark frame calibration, alignment, min/max excluded averaging done in ImagesPlus; Levels, curves, and layer mask adjustments in Photoshop.  Final sharpening using a Lucy-Richardson deconvolution algorithm (7x7 setting, 5 iterations, noise threshold 2.0) in ImagesPlus.  There was very little vignetting at f10 (correction was not necessary), and the STV/LX90/Superwedge combination tracked quite well even at f10.  Animation for Crab movie was constructed using my photo plus an X-Ray, Optical, and Radio composite from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in ImageReady (component of Photoshop).  This composite was used as a luminance layer in the movie, in order to show how the visual light structure of my original image corresponds to the X-Ray structure of the Chandra image.

Please note:  Graphics on this website may not be reproduced without author permission.

Back to Nebulae

Home