Andrew Cooper
Aug 11, 2013    Indian Springs, Oregon Star Party (map)
Regalo de Estrella 6" f/5.4 @ 59x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Small, faint, an unresolved patch of haze about 5' in diameter, round, brighter to the center

Andrew Cooper
Sep 28, 2002    Kitt Peak, AZ (map)
25cm f/10 SCT

Bright core, extended E-W, reasonably large, appears as a classic inclined spiral

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)

One of H.'s bright class neb., lenticular, 5' long, with stellar nucleus.

― Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, T. W. Webb, 1917

Captain William Henry Smyth
Oct 5, 1837    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

An elongated lenticular nebula, sp the head of Medusa, and pointed out by a line led from the Hyades through the Pleiades, and carried twice their distance further. This curious body was discovered by William Herschel in October, 1786, Though pale, it is very distinct in my instrument, and elliptical, not—as the twenty-foot reflector defines it—lenticular; an appearance owing, perhaps, to its being a vast ring lying obliquely to our line of vision. It trends nf and sp, and is accompanied by many small stars, of which the nearest is a l0th-magnitude, due south. Differentiated with β Persei for a mean apparent place.

― A Cycle of Celestial Objects Vol II, The Bedford Catalogue, William Henry Smyth, 1844

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

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