M27 – the Dumbbell Nebula is the first discovered nebula of its kind – planetary nebulas. Charles Messier spotted it on July 12, 1764 and described it as a “nebula without star” that “appears of oval shape.” After that its nature became an object of various hypothesis. William Hershel suggested that it is place of new solar system formation… Which is “almost” right – it is a place solar system de-formation… But what are several billions of years and one small “de-“ between friends  In the bigger scale it is all about solar system evolution, which is tiny fraction of the galaxy evolution…

It is located around 1200 ly away from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula. According to the expansion speed measurements the nebula formation started between 15 000 and 10 000 years ago. A process when the core of the old red giant started to collapse generating more and more energy. In result the outer shells of the giant start to expand. The core was not heavy enough to start carbon or oxygen fusion, so it ends as compressed and super-hot white dwarf. The dwarf cools with the energy emissions in period of many billions of years making the expanding shell glowing. Much later than sooner it will become a black dwarf when the temperature drops to a planetary level… The currently the still white dwarf in M27 is considered to be around 5% of the Sun size, while still have 56% of its mass. The temperature is measured to be around 85 000K, which is sign for energy powerful enough to make the expanding gas bubble with size of ~1 ly shining. The features near and far from the center, the rays going out, the shock waves (barely visible on the image), show that nothing in the process of the nebula formation was and is smooth. It is interesting question if the obvious nebula “axis” (10 to 4 o’clock on the image) corresponds to the magnetic/rotation axis of the old star and or the dwarf? I didn’t manage to find information about it…

The Dumbbell Nebula is one of the most famous planetary nebulae among amateur astronomers because it is big and bright. It can be observed with almost every optical instrument. From small binoculars to big telescopes, showing spectacular views all the time to trained and untrained eye. With the imaging the case is same – satisfaction and different level of details with every setup that can gather photons

So, 8 years after my previous image, decided to use the shortest nights a week after the summer solstice to do a Dumbbell exercise (two weeks before the 258th anniversary of the nebula discovery). In three of the four nights, the sky was spectacular and it was pity that there were only 4 hours darkness (from twilight to twilight), but I don’t complain too much – four hours are four hours Managed to sum up 13 hours of data in various exposures and to practice HDR processing. It can take double the time easily, definitely is hungry for longer Ha integration, but like the result even on this stage. Hope you liked seeing it too

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