Instrument

Celestron C11 @ ~f/10.45 (~2920 mm fl)... 1.27 arcsec / pixel

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon Filters

Acquisition Date

10/20/07 to 11/15/07  Chino Valley... with CCDAutoPilot3

Exposure

Lum    145 min (29 X 5 min, BIN 2x2)
RGB    120 min.  (24 x 5 bin 3x3) each

Software

CCDSoft, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin, Russell Croman's GradientXTerminator and Noel Carboni's actions, Sigma Clip (pre beta 11) and Paint Shop Pro.

Comment

North is to the top.

The Crab Nebula, located 6,500 light-years away, is the result of a star that was seen to explode in 1054 AD. This spectacular supernova explosion was recorded by Chinese and (quite probably) Anasazi Indian astronomers. The filaments are mysterious because they appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and higher speed than expected from a free explosion. In the nebula's center lies a pulsar: a neutron star rotating 30 times a second. 

Source: NASA APOD