Decided to give this very dim target a try...and got a decent bit of it!
Apparently the catalog entry coordinates I used were a little bit off, so let's just call the framing "artsy"
This is the largest and second-closest planetary nebula in our sky. It spans some two degrees on the sky, or four thumb-widths side-by-side held at arm's length. Because of its large size and its age, it is very faint, It's about 400 lightyears away and is some 500,000 years old -- old for a planetary nebula. Here you can see the hydrogen shock front followed by a cloud of hydrogen and oxygen (and other gases, but these two glow the most brightly in the optical spectrum).
At a total exposure time of 50.5 hours, this one just ekes out the M81 & M82 I did last year (
https://www.astrobin.com/qhxexb/) that weighed in at 49h55m for my longest-yet total exposure time! The scheduler picked this one quite a lot over the last month or so, allowing me to accumulate all that exposure time in only 3 months. Having an increase of clear nights since moving to Albuquerque has helped
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