M76 - The Little Dumbell Nebula

[kirkster501]

Spent half an hour on this object last night.  It took some finding but worth it.  A very small object I thought and it does not respond very well to high power IMO - just makes it look even more faint and diffuse if you do.  A nice object to try to find

[cotterless45]

Yep certainly is worthwhile finding, a mini edition of M27,

Nick.

[Mike73]

I seem to remember it being an almost rectangular compared to M27's apple core shape, lovely objects though.

My sketch and sketch notes from that night.....

Sketch notes
Fairly easy to find even without a filter but both UHC and OIII filters really helped bring out the structure and showed the almost rectangular shape of the central nebula.
Poor seeing and transparency last night so I kept the magnification fairly low to make the sketch but I think it will be worth trying higher mags in a steady sky.

[kirkster501]

Well guys, glad we got chance to observe last night since looks like that'll be it for at least a week looking at the weather forecast   Dear me...

[rory]

I recall that i found it responded poorly to  higher mag,at least from my moderately l/p location. agree mike my recalection was a rectangular mist.

[ScottS]

I was looking at M27 last night. The first time in a while, but I have yet to see M76.

[kirkster501]

M76 is said to be one of the hardest Messiers to find, notwithstanding the fact that several of them are next to impossible from UK latitudes so those are ruled out.

Yes, magnification does nothing for it.  At least in a Dob.

[AndyWB]

I managed to see M76 at Astrocamp in September in my 130p. It was pretty small, but looked like two conjoined little fuzzy balls, and I also found that higher magnification just lost it. I also felt that any light pollution and it'd be gone, too.

And those are good sketches on your site, Mike73.