The Dumbell Nebula

[mikeDnight]

The seeing was good but the sky wasn't truly dark, and with the transparency beeing variable due to intermittent wispy cloud, this was a bit of a challenge. The object itself is easy to find but teasing out detail within it can be difficult under less than perfect skies. In the book The Messier Album, John Mallas using his 4" F15 Unitron refractor portrayed M27 as a rectangular blur. I have to confess I've never seen it in quite the same way that Mallas did. Even in binoculars it looks like an Apple core embedded in a nebulous bubble.

Last night's sketch was more than just a quick look, and represents about an hour of study under a blackout hood to help me to tease out as much subtle detail as I could given the less than perfect conditions. Like Mallas I used a 4" refractor, but if you are able to compare Mallas's drawing with mine you'll see they have little in common.

FC100DC using a prism diagonal and 16.8mm orthoscopic eyepiece  (X44). 16/7/17.

Thanks for looking. 

 

 

[darknight]

wow, thats one fantastic drawing, it looks more like an image, big congrats mate

[Richard Hather]

Beautiful sketch Mike one of your finest I would say I like how the gases seem to twist and intertwine with each other then fade slowly out really well done ?

[Richard Hather]

I was observing it last night not for as long as you but you are right easy to spot not so easy to tease out the detail.

[Chefgage]

Very nice drawing. I was observing the dumbell myself a couple of nights ago and I did a quick sketch, not as impressive as yours though. But even with my light polluted skies i could make out the dumbell shape. It appeared to me to be smaller/thinner at one end than the other. I will try and post a sketch later.

[johnfosteruk]

Excellent sketch Mike, more akin to Kreimer's photograph than Mallas's drawing!

[Littleguy80]

Fantastic sketch, Mike! You're an excellent artist

[Galen Gilmore]

Awesome! My image of the dumbbell nebula has nothing on that sketch!

[Alan White]

As usual a very high quality observation and sketch from you Mike.
I wish I could find it from my garden, but then again that's half the fun, finding things.

[N3ptune]

Very nice piece Mike, I never noticed the small cluster of stars close to the nebula. This is where I see the difference of total experience in this hobby.  it's 2 objects in 1 sketch!  Now I want to look at the nebula too.

[DirkSteele]

When I see a sketch like that it makes me want to pick up a pencil under the stars. Wonderful work.

 

[ollypenrice]

Superb.

I was observing M27 last night as well.

Olly

[Stu]

Lovely sketch Mike, thought it was an image to start with!

[BRADLEY 1953]

HI  Mike,  yet again a lovely sketch, great rendition of a familiar object, it certainly lives up to its name,  kind regards  CHRIS.

[nightskystargazer]

Mike,

 

Nice sketch of M-27 

CS,KLU,

 Thanks,

Tom

 

 

[Mr niall]

I don't know why but I can stare at a sketch for ages but a photo rarely holds my attention for more than a few seconds (don't tell the imaging forum!). Not heard of that messier book, I'll have to check it out!

[mikeDnight]

34 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

I don't know why but I can stare at a sketch for ages but a photo rarely holds my attention for more than a few seconds (don't tell the imaging forum!). Not heard of that messier book, I'll have to check it out!

I'm with you on that one! Somehow, even basic sketches seem to capture the living thing, where as an image ( and I don't mean this in a cruel sense), is like viewing something that's been taxidermied. A similar thing can be seen in a photograph of someone you love, as compared to a good drawing or painting of that person. The latter always seems to capture the life within.

The Messier Album was printed in the 1970's and consisted of comparative sketches and photographs of each of Messiers pseudo comets. It's well worth getting hold of a copy if you can find one. I suspect that John Mallas's 4" Unitron was a superlative instrument but that the eyepieces of the day let him down somewhat. 

[Piero]

Another lovely sketch Mike!  

[JeremyS]

A beautiful sketch, Mike

Jeremy

[RobertI]

Lovely sketch, just goes to show the level of detail that can be seen if you spend some quality time really observing something - something I do not do enough of.