M76 - the 9" TMB apo strikes again...

[stargazer]

hi my friends,

it's been a while since my last post.
weather was nasty for more than 2 months.
but - everything ends and so does bad weather...

I started M76 in an almost perfect night! 1.11.07 - we had terrific
seeing and transpareny. (-9/10 !
but that night moon came up high in the sky so I had to stop after 2
hours - it was just too bright.
then of course - I had to wait a little ... and on friday last week I
was able to complete the session with 5.5 more hours of exp time.
single frames 10 minutes and 15 minutes.

scope: 9" f/9 TMB Apo
CCD: SXVF M25C one shot color
image acquisition, autoguiding preprocesing astroart4.
also CCD sharp and registax for preprocessing.
postprocessing (incuding pseudoluminance) in PS CS2 and Pix Insight
LE.

FULL size:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/M76-full.html

make sure to check out his enlarged crop HERE:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/M76-ecrop.html

this little nebula holds only some 61 ar seconds in its longitudinal
axis and therefore is a "hard nut" in terms of resolution and detail.

I am really very glad with that result, as the central appears to be
a little elongated and one could get the idea, it has two parts...
(only visible in the enlarged crop)well, I admit - this is personal
bias here...
also the small stargroup was a specific target and I am happy, the 9"
apo split this group.

looking forward for your comments and tips, guys!

[Edsport]

I'm sorry that i can't give any tips cuz i would never come close to getting it as good as your image. That is exceptional work.

[stargazer]

...thanks Ed!

[stargazer]

FYI:

I just goolged around for some data on the central star.
well, certainly the central star is solitude, a very hot star of some kKelvin (differing data on that between 15k to 60k)...?
the yellowish "binary-component" to the south is a star far out in the background - it is said to be located some 20k LY behind the nebula.
HST has revealed this to be certain...
so this optical binary system has a distance of some 1.4".
did you know this PN (the faintets of all Messier objects) was long time believed to be a galaxy until precise spectroscopic investigations from the early 19th century revealed its true nature?
the PN is said to be seen from an edge on view - the "barr" or "cork" like brighter part is said to be a kind of ring-like structure - consisting of the material the very hot CS blows out. this brigther part holds approx. 1 arc min in longitud. axis. however the fainter outer parts - the wings of the "butterfly" measure approx. double size.
and further out there are remnants from the periode when the CS dwelled in its "super-giant" phase, commencing to evaporate outer star-mass. it has some diameter of approx. 4-5 arc minutes.