August 2006 - M27

[The Warthog]

Date: 28th August 2006

Conditions: Still air, Cool, moist air

Seeing: real good

Transparancy: real good

Scope: 6" f/5 Newt, Celestron C6N

I finally found the damned thing tonight, after not coming up with it so often. I put the red dot pretty close to where I expected to find it, and wiggled the scope a little, and the Dumbbell just sorta fell into the FOV. I was using the 20mm EWA, and also switched to the 8mm X=Cel for a while. If I had named this nebula, I probably would have called it the plant stand, as it reminds me more than anything of an art deco planter, the sort you put on either side of the entrance to your house, to show your neighbours what good taste you have.

The flat ends of the planter were well defined, and a diagonal slash crossed them, with varying nebulosity in the intervening space, and a general halo around it of lesser brightness. I had failed to find it so many times that I watched it for about ten minutes, without noticing any changes, and concluded that rather than being made of nebulosity, it must be made of plaster of paris, or possibly marble.

This was a fun and worthwhile project.