M76 - The Little Dumbbell

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M76 (NGC 650) is a planetary nebula  found in Perseus (The son of Zues). M76 is also known as The Cork Nebula, and The Butterfly Nebula. It is 3400 light years away.  It shines at magnitude 12, and is 4.8' across.

This shot was taken at f/10 with the 12" LX200, AO7, and ST-8E CCD from my home dome in Monmouth Oregon on November 8, 2001. 

Filter Exposure Count Binning
Luminance 50 min 10 x 5 min 2x2
Red 10 min 2 x 5 min 2x2
Green 10 min 2 x 5 min 2x2
Blue 20 min 4 x 5 min 2x2

The luminance frames were botched by leaving a light on in the dome.  This left a nasty gradient that took a lot of effort to remove. Then after a touch of sharpening, Photoshop was used to merge the L and RGB color data.