Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader Mod
14x360sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
APM/TMB 130/780
Astronomik CLS 2" Filter

M27 (NGC 6853), the "Dumbell Nebula" in Vulpecula is a great example of a gaseous emission nebula that forms when a star begins to run out of fuel and expels it's outer layers (planetary nebula). The glow is from the intense emission of ultraviolet radiation from the central star exciting the surrounding gas. The central star, a white dwarf, is estimated to have a radius which is 0.055 solar radii which gives it a size larger than any other known white dwarf. The central star mass is estimated to be 0.56 solar mass, is quite bright at mag 13.5, and extremely hot at about 85,000 K (so the spectral type is given as O7 in the Sky Catalog 2000). K.M. Cudworth of the Yerkes Observatory found that it probably has a faint (mag 17) yellow companion at 6.5" separation.

M27 is 1,200 light-years distant and is only about 3000-4000 years old.

July 5, 2008