Object: M57 (Planetary Nebula) Constellation: Lyra Dates: 2007 August 15, 18 Location: Blue Mountain Vista Observatory, New Ringgold, PA Scope: Meade LX-200R 12 inch Mount: Paramount ME CCD: SBIG ST-8XME Filters: Custom Scientific Filter Wheel: SBIG CFW-8A Focus: FLI DF2 Focuser & FocusMax Rotator: Optec 2 in Pyxis Exposures: LRG: 5 minute subs, B 5.5 minute sub Binning: 1x1 (unbinned) Luminance: 24 frames (120 minutes) Red: 10 frames (50 minutes) Green: 10 frames (50 minutes) Blue: 10 Frames (55 minutes) Total: 275 minute (4 hrs. 35 min.) Image Acquisition by Frank Colosimo: CCDAutopilot 3 Processing by Chris Abissi: Calibration & Bloom removal CCDStack Alignment MiraPro Combining CCDStack Image adjustments Adobe PhotoShop CS3 This is one of the first images from my new roll off observatory in New Ringgold, PA. Thanks to Chris for his expert processing, which brought out the faint halo around this planetary nebula. I welcome comments and suggestions that might help us improve our work! Frank Colosimo (aquisition) [email protected] New Ringgold, PA Chris Abissi (image processing) www.darkhorseobservatory.org [email protected] Kimberton, PA