Messier 27, also known as the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula located over 1,000 light-years away in the constellation of Vulpecula. Planetary nebulae get their name from their resemblance to a planet when viewed through a small telescope. In reality, the nebula’s creation has nothing to do with planets — the nebula consists of the outer layers blown off from an aging star as it expels its atmosphere when transitioning from a giant star to a compact white dwarf. The progenitor star is now a white dwarf located in the center of the nebula.
The image consists of ten 15-second exposures in L, R, B filters and nine in G (something bumped the telescope during the tenth exposure), which I took using the PROMPT telescope array at Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile and combined in Adobe Photoshop CC.
