7/26/03 M27 The Dumbbell Nebula

This is a wonderful planetary nebula, perhaps the most widely recognized. These tend to be hourglass in shape and we're looking at this one side on. The equally fantastic Ring Nebula is another hourglass shaped nebula, but we're looking at it from the top down, hence the ring shape that we see. I couldn't get the guider working on this night and went with 1 minute unguided exposures. There was a breeze and I had a large number of throw aways - definitely need more data to do this one justice. Just wait till next year!