Quite possibly the most beautiful planetary I have seen. Not kidding. I had two Planetaries on the docket tonight, along with OC NGC 1778 and globular NGC 2419. Got both of those earlier. I went with NGC 2440 because it looked to be transiting the meridian a little sooner than NGC 2346.
Gosh, where to begin. Found NGC 2440, not too difficult. Spied it right away at 120x with my new APM 10mm UFF, but that was not nearly enough magnification. I glanced at it at 200x for a few minutes. The very first thing I noticed was a small but fairly bright round planetary with a fairly conspicuous bright speck toward the west. Still not enough magnification. So, up to 300x as high as I can go currently. It began to take on a very weak annular form, kind of expected that as being normal. This gave it the appearance of a brighter core fading softly at the edges. But, as time went on, I could tell the planetary seemed to be divided in half by a darker angular line running through it roughly east and west. This gave the planetary the appearance of having two lobes, one roughly north and to the south. Each seemed to be associated with a smaller bright speck, but the southern one was very faint.
The Northern lobe was pretty small, round, and bright. Almost star like. In fact, I thought it was either a star or another jet as seen in NGC 2371-2. But, it's not, it's just a brighter part of the almost annular appearance. The lobe to the south (up in the sketch) too on more of an arc shape with an occasional bright speck in it. Not as bright as the northern lobe. Then a few times, I caught a fleeting fairly dim arc to the ENE. So, it was kind of annular in appearance, but with a diagonal dark line cutting through it. During that time, I began to suspect some soft roughly NS elongation, some very faint extensions. Not enough to confirm, but enough to begin trying to.
Learning a lesson from NGC 2022, I decided to hit it with my Orion Ultrablock. But, at 300x, the nebula just became too difficult to see as well. I kind of figured the smaller 0.7mm exit pupil was the cause, then jumped down. So, back down to 200x with the Ultrablock. Not sure I liked the view. So, I decided to split the difference and hit it at 225x with the Ultrablock. That was the ticket. In fact, this was the best view of NGC 2440. I kid you not, the fainter extensions were confirmed as faint almost conical in appearance. What's more, the northern extension has a bit brighter arc running up the west side. Absolutely stunning.
I stayed on NGC 2440 for an hour. I decided I had seen all I was going to see and decided I knew what it looked like. I know I recently added the Bow Tie nebula to DSO Browser observing list, so I thought that was what I was observing. It kind of did resemble a bow tie. Upon checking, I think that moniker is reserved for NGC 40. But, NGC 2440 is a Bow Tie in my book. Absolutely the most beautiful planetary I have seen, including the venerable Ring and Eskimo Nebulae.
I absolutely enjoyed this one. Go see it, if you have not already. Thanks!
Edited by Asbytec, 01 February 2019 - 07:31 PM.
