The Crab Nebula

JAN 30, 2011

The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a supernova explosion that took place in 1054 AD. The bright supernova was recorded by both Chinese and Arab astronomers at the time. The supernova was bright for a few weeks or months but eventually it faded. Today, it is a faint object that is hard to see visually from light polluted skies. But, the light emitted by the expanding cloud of gas consists mostly of a few specific wavelengths and therefore nice pictures can be taken even with modest equipment provided appropriate narrowband filters are used. The picture shown here was taken with my 10 inch reflecting telescope and is a combination of images taken with Hydrogen-alpha (red) and Oxygen-III (blue-green) filters.

  --Bob