Photos of M27, The Dumbbell Nebula

The other night I was able to capture Messier 27, the Dumbbell Nebula. The photos are not great as I need more work on darks, flats, and bias frames as well as stacking. These photos are just the result of stacking 3 15-second images with a 25mm eyepiece in a Starblast 4.5 inch scope with no tracking and none of those other frames. Even so, you get a decent idea of what this planetary nebula looks like. To see a much cleaner image by a professional, you can look here. M27 was the first planetary nebula discovered by Charles Messier and it is the end point of a start like our Sun when a red giant depletes its fusionable material and releases its outer gases. Those gases are then heated by the remaining white dwarf star which allows us to see that nebula.