M76 - The Little Dumbbell Nebula
The Little Dumbbell Nebula (M76) / (NGC650/651) is a planetary nebula
in the constellation
Perseus. It
is also sometimes called the Cork Nebula and the Butterfly Nebula. It
is the result of a star which ejected its outer shell of gas into surrounding
space. This object's distance is not accurately known, but is estimated
to be at a distance of approximately 3400 light years. More information
about this object can be found at The Messier List - M76 and also Wikipedia - Little Dumbbell.
This image is from 198 minutes of total exposure through a William Optics FLT110 4.3" f/7 refractor taken on 25-26 November 2011 using LRGB filters. The full field from which the above image was cropped is shown below. Click on the images to see the full field at full resolution.
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