This is my 2017 image of Messier 1, the Crab Nebula. In this image I enhanced the Red channel with Hydrogen-Alpha channel data. Then I combined this enhanced Red channel with the Green and Blue channel data to yield an HA_R-G-B image of M1. Due to the length of camera exposures the background stars tend to become bloated; to counteract this effect I applied a star mask and eroded the star sizes in my image. I also made some slight refinements to the histogram parameters for the red, green and blue color channels.

 

Here is a summary of the length of exposure times and dates of capture for each of the color and narrowband filters that I used over a period of approximately 8 hours:

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H-alpha = 105 mins (7x15mins) on Feb 17 2017
Red = 105 mins (15x3mins + 20x3mins)) on Feb 4 & 26 2017
Green = 114 mins (17x3mins + 21x3mins) Feb 4 & 20 2017
Blue = 144 mins (12x5mins+16x5mins+1x4mins) Mar 8 2016 & Feb 17 2017

Total = 468 minutes 

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The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant resulting from the explosion of a massive star as first seen on Earth in the year 1054 AD. The nebula is 11 light years long and 8 light years wide; it is located 6,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The orange filaments in my image are remnants of the original star's atmosphere. Please note the light green glow within the nebula powered by the central neutron star rotating at 30 revolutions per second. This "pulsar" generates a magnetic field having field lines about which high energy electrons spiral; these spiraling electrons emit synchrotron radiation in the form of high energy photons that are responsible for the light blue- green glow concentrated in the center of my image.