Date Posted: 7/28/2026
Date Taken (LRGB): 5/13/2016, 5/15/2016, 6/7/2016
Date Taken (Ha): 6/11/2023, 6/12/2023, 7/11/2023
Scope: Planewave CDK 12.5 f/8, 2541mm
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 with Astrodon Tru-Balance E-Series Gen2 filters
Temp: -15C
Mount: Losmandy Titan
Guiding (LRGB): SSAG, Celestron 80mm guide scope, 600mm.
Guiding (Ha): On-axis via ONAG-XM and SX UltraStar at 2541mm. FocusLock real-time focus for focusing.
Exposure: LhaRGB 160:885:75:85:85 LRGB subs 5min, Ha 15min. Luminance and Ha unbinned, RGB binned 2x2.

Calibrated and Stacked with CCDStack2; RGB combine and DDP with MaximDL. Processed with CS4.

The Dumbbell Nebula was the first planetary nebula discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. It is an example of what could happen to our sun in 5 or so billion years, when it runs out of fuel starts to shed its outer layers, leaving a white dwarf star at its core. It is about 1360 light years away, and is estimated to be about 9800 years old.

7/28/2026: Yet another version. No new data here, just a lot more stretching of the 2023 version. Also blended HA stars-only with Lum stars-only to reduce the number of stars.

The three LHaRGB images (I, II, and III) are all the same signal, stretched to varying degrees.