M 76 the Little Dumbbell Nebula

Messier 76  (also known as M76, the Little Dumbbell Nebula or NGC650/651) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Perseus. 

This nebula was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1780, and was included in the Charles Messier's catalogue of comet-like objects as number 76 as a double nebula without stars (for this reason, it was also catalogued as NGC 650 and NGC651). 

It was first classified as a planetary nebula by the American astronomer Heber Doust Curtis in 1918. M76 is one of the faintest objects in the Messier catalogue and is also known by the popular name of "Little Dumbbell Nebula" due to its shape.

The distance to M76 is not exactly known, but it is currently estimated to be about 2,500 light years, so its size appears to be 1.23 light years.

The image is taken with narrowband filters, with the TOA-150 telescope and STL-11000M camera, and is presented in the Ha-OIII-OIII palette with RGB stars. Total exposure time is about 27 hours (including 2 h for the colour of the stars). As in previous narrowband images, the balance of the colours was adjusted to my personal taste with the help of the NarrowbandNormalization module and other tools in Pixinsight.

To show the maximum detail of the nebula, I have used drizzle integration x2. Image scale in this case is 0.85 arcseconds per pixel.

Click on the image for a full resolution version, or go to the Gallery section for complete exposure details.

Image processing: Pixinsight.

Observatory automation and remote operation with Talon6.