• Messier 27 in Vulpecula, the Dumbell Nebula
    • M27 extended Dumbell Nebula
    Annotated image
  • NGC 6853, M27, or the Dumbell Nebula in Vulpecula is a bright
  • planetary nebula that is easy to find in small telescopes.
  • This view is a high dynamic range composition that
  • shows the very faint extended regions of M27.
  • Hover over the image for an annotated view.
  • Date:  19 July 2026 and 2 June 2025
  • FOV:  cropped to 27' × 18'; the angular size of M27 is about 8' × 5.6'
  • Rotation:  −179.997° to show the butterfly wings
  • Telescope:  Celestron C14 SCT (3910mm, f/11)
  • Starizona SCT Coma Corrector/Reducer (2668.5mm, f/7.5)
  • Guiding:  ZWO ASI120MM mini guide camera, ZWO2600 Duo
  • Computer:  ASIair plus 256GB
  • Mount:  iOptron CEM120
  • Camera:  ZWO ASI2600MC Pro Cooled (0°C) Color CMOS with gain 100
  • Pixel size:  3.76 μm
  • Resolution:  0.291 arcsec/pixel
  • Filter:  Optolong UV/IR cut 2 June 2025
  • Optolong L-eNhance narrowband filter 19 July 2026
  • Stacking:  preprocessing done with PixInsight
  • 24 frames on 2 June 2025
  • 56 frames on 19 July 2026
  • Total Time:  6 hours and 40 minutes
  • Processing:  Pixinsight
  • preprocessing → UV/IR ×44 and L-eNhance×56
  • LeNh:  MGC, DBE, SPCC, BXT, NXT, StarXT → LinearLeNh
  • MAS, CurvesTransformation → Starless
  • UVIR:  MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch, Sat → Stars
  • PixelMath ScreenBlend(Stars, Starless), DynCrop/Scale
  • Location:  Darling Hill Observatory in Vesper, NY