The first entry in Chuck's "not-a-comet" catalogue. I haven't attempted this target since late 2020, and this is a far more satisfying result. There are two images from the 100-inch Hale telescope at Mount Palomar that ignited my interest in the cosmos back in 1964 when I first saw them in my first-grade class. The first was the Horsehead Nebula and the second was the Sombrero Galaxy. But the Crab Nebula was also in that initial exposure to astronomy and I later became fascinated with it as I learned about supernovas. So this image helps complete a long journey from vicarious to first-hand experience.
As for this image, I prefer the Foraxx version aesthetically. But the SHO version reveals more chemistry and better expresses the incredibly complex action going on in this supernova remnant. Rather than choose which one to post, I posted both with my favorite version as the secondary messenger.
In 1054, Chinese astronomers recorded what they called a "guest star" that slowly faded from view. That was actually the supernova explosion that created the now six-light-year-wide Crab Nebula 6,500 light years away in Taurus. By my possibly faulty calculations, that means the edge of this thing is racing away from the point of the explosion at about 22
million miles per hour! It left behind a pulsar, the Crab Pulsar to be specific, which is visible in the images here:
First discovered by English astronomer John Beavis in 1731, Charles-In-Charge later spotted it and thought it was Halley's comet. When he realized his mistake, he decided to create a list of things that look like comets but aren't. And the Messier Catalogue was born.
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