M27 - Dumbbell Nebula
2013-09-07 
This was our first try on the dumbbell nebula and we both think it turned out great! Click here for more information about this night. 
A planetary nebula is a kind of emission nebula consisting of an expanding glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from old red giant stars late in their lives. The word 'nebula' is Latin for mist or cloud and the term 'planetary nebula' is a misnomer that originated in the 1780s with astronomer William Herschel because when viewed through his telescope, these objects appeared to him to be newly forming planetary systems. Herschel's name for these objects was adopted by astronomers and has not been changed. They are a relatively short-lived phenomenon, lasting a few tens of thousands of years, compared to a typical stellar lifetime of several billion years. ― source and more information wikipedia
Date: 2013-09-07
Location: Ekerö, Sweden
Temperature: 15 °C
Telescope: Meade LX200GPS 12" SCT
Camera: Canon 500D
ISO: 1600
Mount: Meade fork-mount
Exposure time: 85 X 40 sec
Reducer/flattener: F/6.3 reducer
Other info: Autoguided with 50mm scope, Meade DSI Pro and GPUSB interface.
Processing: Stacked and darks-subtracted in DeepSkyStacker. Processed in Photoshop CS6.