M76 c8cr Stack 150frames 1500s g450 m10c clipped

M76 Little Dumbell
https://en.wikipedia...Dumbbell_Nebula

42 minute EAA View
The little dumbbell is often one of the skipped Messier Objects to image. It's not as spectacular as many of the other Messier or Caldwell planetary nebula. This is a longer EAA view to see if longer exposures could make things more interesting. The view was mostly complete in the first 10-15 minutes. The faint wings of the nebula had improvements in S/N using the longer view -- but it's not worth the extra time to do this. This used a very conservative stretch (sort of what works best for M57) to not saturate the inner portions of the planetary.

I do like this planetary nebula. There is nice structure and vivid color differences in the view - and the hardest part is to not make this look like a colorful lit Christmas ornament in the yard.

8" SCT, Night Owl Reducer F4.23
ASI2600mc pro -10C, 450 gain, 10 sec subs, darks, no flats, about 3000px ROI mode