I've always been flummoxed by the naming of the Dumbbell Nebula. It's never looked like a dumbbell to me, even in a small telescope. If anything, M-27 has always looked like a bow tie to me. Just the other day, I saw someone refer to it as the "apple core nebula". Even that I can accept. I henceforth re-dub Messier 27 as the Bow Tie Nebula whether anyone likes it or not .

Anyway, this is my first attempt at an LRGB color photograph. Unfortunately, I cracked my luminance filter while I was installing it into my filter wheel, so I had to use a Hydrogen Alpha image as my luminance channel. I took these images while I was on vacation at Norris Lake in Tennessee. The window between astronomical twilight and moon rise was very narrow, so the amount of color data I captured was limited.

Here's the details:
Messier 27, 07/02/2010
Astro Tech AT106LE (106mm, f/6.95 Triplet)
Astro Tech ATFF field flattener
SBIG ST8300M @ -5C w/FW5-8300 filter wheel
Guided with TMB80SS w/Starshoot Autoguider
CGE Mount
hAlpha - 20 X 180 Seconds (1 hour)
R:G:B - 5 X 180 Seconds each, Binned 1X1 (15 minutes each color)
Calibrated with 150 darks, no flats, no bias
Each channel stacked with Deep Sky Stacker, processed individually with Photoshop CS4.
HaRRGB combine performed in PS CS4

Click for the large version: