Astrophotography Tips #20: The Crab Nebula!

Got focal length? Then this is the astrophotography target for you! The Crab Nebula is a beautiful supernova remnant visible with the right equipment in our night skies. I'll teach you everything you need to know to successfully image this beautiful target. And as always it's Astrophotography made SIMPLE!

[@tullyfisher]

"So much beauty in so much destruction." - Very well said. And very well done Sir!

[@keystothecosmos7527]

Thank you! 🙏

[@everetttremblay3003]

Great video Dave. And such a great result! I really love how the filter brought out all those colours.

[@keystothecosmos7527]

Thanks Everett! Yeah can't say enough about this filter

[@massimo541]

Wow!!! 👏👏👏

[@keystothecosmos7527]

Grazie Massimo!

[@nonnaseasyitalianfood8737]

One of my favorites! Beautiful colors.

[@dicarlon1]

Great processing, nice details!

[@JB-bv6jl]

Just randomly discovered this, great job man I’m subscribing. I’m also from Canada (Sask and now west coast), starting out with my sony asr3 and look forward to upgrading to a full on system like you have. If I can eventually get your quality of astrophotographs I’ll be really happy, will hang them in the home theatre

[@keystothecosmos7527]

Thanks! You definitely can. Lots of practice processing and eventually building a reliable rig are the keys 👌

[@kayasper6081]

Thanks for sharing all these valuable tips.

[@keystothecosmos7527]

Thanks so much

[@MountainFisher]

I can see it with my 150mm f5 reflector with an orthoscopic 18mm at 42x, then I changed to a 9mm ortho at 84x. I viewed it with a high quality reflector with a refigured mirror to .98 Strehl and .08 wave, so pretty sharp, but still only 6". In Bortle 4 sky with no filter because I used an OIII filter and it was almost invisible. I couldn't see many details, it was mostly a dim blob with some lines in it. I next viewed it with my club's 16" Meade LX200 and it looked like the pictures. They had a broadband filter, but I don't know which one. To enjoy it visually I have been told you need Bortle 4 skies or darker and a 10" Dob works very well, but an 8" will too and a 12" the best . An astronomer from NMSU who is in my club said if you have an 8" Dob already, do not waste your money jumping to a 10" as the improvement isn't like the 78% jump you get from 6" to 8", but more like 7 to 8 because the area gets so much larger. He said if you have an 8" Dob and want to go bigger get a 12 inch truss tube to save weight.

[@nocturnalmayhem0]

jesus christ that single 3min exposure was amazing. what gain settings do you run on the 533?

[@keystothecosmos7527]

Thanks! I believe it was 120

[@avt_astro206]

Great Video. I actually Tried This Target Last Night, It didn't Work, Cuz The Nebula is Too faint! Maybe I will Tru This Year Later!!

[@keystothecosmos7527]

Thanks. How long were your exposures? Were you able to use a light pollution filter?

[@avt_astro206]

@@keystothecosmos7527 I don't have a Lp Filter Yet, But I will purchase One. About 5 second Exposures and Got nothing. I know Its a fainter object, But Just Wanted To try!

[@keystothecosmos7527]

@@avt_astro206 I applaud you for trying 👏 See if you can get those exposures up to 30 seconds and see what happens

[@avt_astro206]

@@keystothecosmos7527 Actually My Mount Cant handle Really Long Sub expo. Or Is It a Problem with my Own piece Of Mount. If I take Exposures More Than 10 second some Serious Trailing Starts!

[@tullyfisher]

Hey ;) What camera did you use? DSLR or astro-dedicated one? ... For that one you need A LOT of 5sec exposures I guess...

[@MrDonNelson]

What was the filter you mentioned ?

[@keystothecosmos7527]

The Radian Triad Ultra. I believe Radian has gone out of business but it's a great (and very expensive) narrowband filter