Here is the astronomical harvest from Friday, March 20, a very clear
night:

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1. M1 (Taurus), the Crab Nebula, is a pulsar wind nebula, expelled from
a supernova which exploded in 1054 and was observed by Chinese and Arab
astronomers. The neutron star remnant of the explosion, the Crab pulsar,
is visible as the brighter of the close pair of stars located near the
center of the nebula. The white colored areas are visible due to
synchrotron radiation from relativistic electrons spiraling around
magnetic field lines. In the pink regions, H-alpha (Balmer-alpha)
radiation from excited hydrogen predominates.

http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/messier/m1-60x2min.jpg

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2. NGC 2392 (Gemini), the Eskimo Nebula, a planetary nebula, a star in the
process of shedding its outer layers as it runs out of hydrogen in its
core and thus begins to evolve off the main sequence.

http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/ngc/ngc2392-eskimo-15x2min.jpg

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3. M82, the Cigar Galaxy, in the midst of a burst of star formation
as a result of its recent (few Myr) encounter with nearby M81.

http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/messier/m82-22x2min.jpg

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4. Arp 148, Mayall's Object (Ursa Major), an intriguing pair of galaxies
emerging from a recent collision. The galaxy on the right is ring-shaped,
having been penetrated by the bullet-like bright white galaxy to the
left. The 15th magnitude pair is at a distance of about 450 Mlyr.

http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/misc_galaxies/mayall's_object-15x2min-stretch525-700.jpg

An enlarged and cropped version of the object is shown in

http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/misc/galaxies/mayall's_object-15x2min-stretch525-700-crop.jpg
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Dick


Details:
12" LX200R at f/10 - 3049mm focal length
Camera position angle 359 deg 50' - North up (except for M82, which is
     South up due to a meridian flip).
Image scale 0.53"/pixel
Total pixels 3040x2024 (7.8x7.8 microns)
FOV 26'40" x 17'43"
AP1200
Orion StarShoot Pro one-shot color camera (23.7x15.7mm chip)
Maxim DL Pro 5.04
Stack of unguided 2-minute subframes.
Exposure lengths can be read from the jpg titles.