Dumbbell Nebula

The Dumbbell Nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula.  It's distance is about 1,360 light years.  It's a gaseous emission nebula created by a sun-like star that runs out of fuel.

Imaged near Fort Davis, TX on July 20, 2012 without filters.  I used my Celestron 11" Edge HD and autoguided with an Orion autoguider.  This is an F/7 image.  5min exposures captured with Nebulosity software and processed with MaxIm DL.  I used my QHY8 CCD camera and the total exposure time was 100 minutes (5min X 20 exposures).