Andrew Cooper
Dec 29, 2019    Kaʻohe, Mauna Kea, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 175x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Small, bright, brighter core, amongst a few brighter stars 8-11 magnitude, 45' east of M81

Andrew Cooper
Jun 4, 2005    Vekol Ranch, Maricopa Co., AZ (map)
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet

Round, distinct core, even halo with no structure, bright, nice double 5' to the NW

Captain William Henry Smyth
Apr 5, 1832    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A bright-class round nebula, at the back of Ursa Major's left ear, preceding λ, at the end of Draco's tail, by 22°; it is lucid white, and lights up in the centre. There are two lines of three stars each across the field, of which the one preceding the nebula is of the 7th magnitude, and that following of the 10th; between these the sky is intensely black, and shows the nebula as if floating in awful and illimitable space, at an inconceivable distance. Dr. Derham, whose judgment led him to consider nebulæ as vast areas of light "infallibly beyond* the fixed stars," thought that some of them might be openings in an opacity surrounding the visible system, which chasms allow us a sight of the empyreal sphere beyond it. The present object, under the favourable conditions in which I viewed it, would have almost countenanced his supposition.

This nebula was discovered by Ij[. in November, 1801; and he says, that "on the nf side there is a faint ray interrupting the roundness."

― 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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