Sept 26, 2009

I finally had a chance to image with some narrowband filters last night at the VCO. I've been intrigued by narrowband ever since I read about the lack of dependency on urban sky conditions and the possibility of more extensions to human vision. I chose M27 for my first object as it is one of the popular objects for this technique. It's amazing how different each band looks and the structures it reveals. M27 is a planetary nebula marked by an interesting pattern of knot-like structures in the central area.


Telescope and Mount: NP127 on Paramount guided by Orion guider
Sensor: Atik 16IC-S with Astronomik 13nm Ha; Astronomik 15nm OIII; Astronomik L-UV/IR Block filters
Capture: Nebulosity 2
Image Processing: Background stars shot as luminance with L filter; Narrowband images combined with Maxim DL5; final adjustments Adobe Photoshop CS2