Dumbbell or Apple Core

This is my sketch of M27 (NGC 6853), the Dumbbell Nebula, sometimes called Apple Core.

This planetary nebula is probaly the best one to show for the first-time-on-scope ones who want to know about the future of our Sun. It’s the brightest, bigger and sharper one, just Hellix surpases it, but not in surface brightness nor in contrast.

The drawing was done just before the Swan one published in ASOD on July 21st, 2010, and also shows how fast the sky quality can change in a few hours and with some degrees more above the horizon.

It was rendered on Bonilla, Cuenca, Spain, on July 9th, 22:25UT, with graphite bar and stump in white paper, then scaned, inverted, and level balanced. I used my 10′ dobson with a Baader Hyperion 17mm (75x 55’FOV).

I encourage every observer to draw what they see, just because they’ll see even more as they do. Slowly, more people are joining the “pencil crew” here, and I hope you will see more results in those pages soon.

Jorge Arranz