Andrew Cooper
Oct 24, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 25%

Large, low surface brightness, round, 5' in diameter, generally brighter to the center without a notable core, 1° southwest of 4 Ari and 1°20' northeast of η Psc

Andrew Cooper
Aug 21, 2017    Grants Spring, OR (map)
76mm f/6 APO, TeleVue-76 @ 30x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Faint, round, modest size at 5' across, no notable core, 1° east of ηPsc

Andrew Cooper
Sep 18, 1988    NASP, Chino Valley, AZ (map)
20cm f/10 SCT

Easy to find off of η Psc, standard fuzzy, slight brightening for the core, no other detail

William Herschel
Dec 28, 1799    Observatory House, Slough (map)
40ft Herchelian Reflector

Very bright in the middle, but the brightness confined to a very small part, and is not round; about the bright middle is a very faint nebulosity to a considerable extent. The bright part seems to be of resolvable kind, but my mirror has been injured by condensed vapours.

Charles Messier
Oct 18, 1780    

Nebula without stars, near the star Eta Piscium, seen by M. Méchain at the end of September 1780, & he reports: "This nebula doesn't contain any stars; it is fairly large, very obscure, and extremely difficult to observe; one can recognize it with more certainty in fine, frosty conditions". M. Messier looked for it & found it, as M. Méchain describes it: it has been compared directly with the star Eta Piscium.

― Connaissance des Temps, 1781

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

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