| Planetary
Nebula
Barbell, Cork, M 76, NGC 650, PNG 130.9-10.5, PK 130-10.1, ARO 2 Integrated Visual Magnitude: 12.2 Magnitude of Central Star: 15.9 Apparent Diameter: 2.2' Distance: 2400 ly
Minimum requirements to view: a 6-inch scope under country skies |
 |
This is an interesting planetary nebula in telescopes large and small. Named for it's resemblance to M27, the famous "Dumbbell nebula" in Cygnus, this planetary is nonetheless considerably smaller and fainter. On the other hand it is much larger than the vast majority of planetaries and it's fairly faint integrated magnitude of 12.2 is misleading (it appears considerably brighter than this would suggest).
In a 6-inch scope this planetary appears as an elongated, rectangular hazy spot. A slight pinching at the middle can be glimpsed with averted vision.The view in a 6 inch at 50X. North is down and east is to the right.
As is the case for all but the brightest of it's class, larger aperture is required to see more detail. In my 18" the two lobes are easily visible as separate entities. There are hints of structure -- a sort of blobishness -- to the dark area between the two lobes. The outer ends of the lobes have filaments arcing outward from each corner. A star is embedded at one of these corners where the filament starts. An OIII filter helps increase the contrast a bit.
In photographs the filaments make complete arcs, joining
the filament from the opposing lobe. User's of large instruments should
attempt to trace these filaments all of the way across.
| Millennium
Star Atlas Vol I Chart 63
Sky Atlas 2000 Chart 4 Uranometria 2000 Vol I Chart 37 |
