How to photograph the Crab Nebula (M1)
The remains of the supernova recorded by astronomers in 1054.
Photo byNASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)(Public domain)
When to shoot it from your location
About the Crab Nebula
M1 is small and bright, with tangled red filaments around a blue-white core. It needs 800mm or more to show detail.
Gear and framing
The Crab Nebula spans about 6′ of sky. It frames best with:
- Long focal length (800mm and up)
You can see how other people have built their rigs on RigDesigner, including my Sony a6700 and 60mm refractor rig.
Filters
This target glows in emission lines and also has broadband detail. Unfiltered color frames under dark skies give the most natural colors. A dual-band filter lets you shoot it from the city or with the Moon up.
Tips
- Short subframes and good seeing matter more than total time for the filaments.
Processing
Stack your light frames with darks and flats, then remove the background gradient before stretching. AstroBake does all of this for you. Point it at your folders of raw frames, then adjust the result with live sliders.