Object Information                                            Imaging Details

Records from the Sung Dynasty show that on July 4, 1054, a "guest star" suddenly appeared Southeast of Aldebaran. The 'star' was reportedly visible in daylight for several days. It gradually faded becoming invisible to the naked eye within about 2 years. We now know this guest star to be the light from a supernova explosion which occured about 5600 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. The residual, expanding gas and dust are known as the Crab Nebula. The nebula was first reported by John Bevis in 1731. 27 years later, Charles Messier independently observed and cataloged the object as Messier-1.

Through a modest-sized telescope, the Crab Nebula appears as a faint smudge about 1 degree SW of 3rd magnitude zeta Tauri. Use of an OIII filter will help to show some structure.

This image was taken from my driveway in suburban Las Cruces. Transparency was excellent; seeing was good.

Clicking the above image will bring up a higher resolution image.

Telescope:

Celestron NexStar GPS 11"