NGC7008: NGC7008 is a small (1.4 arcminutes by 1.1 arcminutes), dim (variously reported as being magnitude 13.3 or magnitude 10.7) planetary nebula, the type of nebula which it is generally thought our Sun will produce as nuclear fusion slows and then dies in its core, and it expels its outer layers of gas. Estimates of its distance from Earth vary, but tend to be around 3,600 light years.

Technical Information:

LRGB: 140:30:30:30 (All channels consisted of unbinned ten minute images).

Equipment: Meade 12" RCX400 at f/8.5, an SBIG ST-8XE camera/CFW-8 color filter wheel with Astrodon filters, guided by an SBIG AO-7 adaptive optics device, guiding at about 5 Hz (luminance) and 3 Hz (RGB).

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: CCDSoft V5.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks, dawn flats and flat-darks) and registered in CCDSoft. Luminance layer average combined in Ray Gralak's sigma reject program. Color channel median combined in CCDSoft. Lucy-Richardson deconvolution routine applied using AIP4WIN (one fast and fifteen slow iterations). Color combine in Photoshop. Very gentle unsharp mask applied to the luminance layer, selective Gaussian blurs, and adjustment of curves and levels, performed in Photoshop 6.0.

Location: All images taken in my yard in Redmond, WA, USA, elevation 500'.

Date: Luminance images taken on the nights of June 27 and 28, 2006; RGB taken on the night of June 28 2006.

CCD Temperature: -20C

Moon Phase: New moon

Image Scale: .8 Arcseconds per pixel

Seeing: Variable; 1.9 - 2.3 Arcsecond FWHM in single calibrated images, deconvolved to 2.1 arcsecond FWHM.

Copyright 2006 Mark de Regt

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