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While the visual aspects of the Crab Nebula (aka M1 - the first in Charles Messier's first canonical catalogue of the sky) to me are stunning, the story and physics behind it make it one of my favorite target in the heavens. First, M1 is a supernova remnant. So, we are literally looking at the exploded outer shell of a star. It's also possibly the youngest remnant visible - through observation and physics, "reversing" it's measured expansion ties the supernova to observations by numerous cultures across the globe as a "new star" in AD 1054 - one that was the brightest in the night sky and even visible in daylight. Second, the star remnant at the center of the nebula is a pulsar - an amazing feat of nature that consists of an extremely dense center, greater than the sun's mass, that rotates a beam of high energy Xrays and radiation at a very precise period of ~33 milliseconds (but it will slow over time). In addition, that rotating energy lighthouse comes from the ultra-dense remnants of the star having a diameter of a little less than the bike ride on the strand from Redondo Beach Pier to Santa Monica Pier (~12 mi in diameter). That is simply astounding. But, in the end, what we get to observe is a beautiful nebula with intricate filamentation and brilliant colors of Red and Teal. I really look forward to putting some more exposure on this target next year to bring out the structure even more clearly.
Two images above - the pictures with the teal Bortle X logo - are from narrowband imaging (H-Alpha and OIII). The other image is HaOIII blended with an RGB image (or HaOIIIRGB) - indicated by the Orange logo. The Ha indicates red, and OIII is a teal color. All were taken in winter of '23 in Redondo Beach, CA. There is just over 5 hours in the narrowband image and 6 hours in the RGB image at 180s and 120s exposure respectively. I first imaged the Crab Nebula in early 2022. I did a short 10 exposure stack just to test, and then the weather-work combined to keep this astrophotographer off the telescope until M1 was out of season. This year I aimed to spend more time on the target. Although my time was thwarted by a good 6 hours in each image by our "El Nino disguised as La Nina" west cost weather, I was able to get about 11 hours total with the combined narrowband and broadband images.