The Crab Nebula is the most famous supernova remnant known; observations of the explosion date back to 1054 AD by Chinese astronomers. At this time, the guest star as it was know, was 4 times brighter than Venus.
The Crab Pulsar was identified as a pulsating radio source in 1968 by the Arecibo Observatory. This star is now known to be a rapidly rotating neutron star, rotating about 30 times a second. There are shock waves moving out from the centre which are visible in the FT images, travelling at 20 per cent of the speed of light.
This image was taken in Red, Visual, Blue, Oxygen-III and Hydrogen-Alpha filters with Faulkes Telescope North.
