Andrew Cooper
Mar 9, 2007    Waimea, HI (map)
76mm f/6 APO

Somewhat difficult to locate due to the small size, at low power stellar, at 60x a star that will not focus, at 120x a round nebula, brighter core and a fainter outer shell, no color noted, no central star apparent, about 30" across

Andrew Cooper
Dec 4, 2005    Sentinel, AZ (map)
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet

Small, round, edges indistinct, notably green, brighter central region, no central star visible, rich star field

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)
94mm f/18 Tully Achromat

Planetary nebula bright; pale bluish white; H., 12" or 15". With my 64, like a dull 8 mg. star: with more power, small brilliant, undefined, surrounded by a very faint haziness. In a glorious neighborhood. E. of Rosse, a red star 9-10 mg. f.

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

Captain William Henry Smyth
Mar 18, 1838    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A bright planetary nebula, pale bluish-white, over the Argo's poop, and on an outlying wave of the Milky Way. This fine object exactly precedes a 7th magnitude, and is followed by some small stars, as in the annexed diagram; by which it is very readily identified when fished up, and this may be done by throwing a line from Castor through Procyon, and extending it 24° to the south, where it follows Sirius about 14° east by south.

This was registered by ♅., in March, 1790, and was only estimated at about 12" or 15" in diameter. But the inference from such a supposition is vast! "Granting," says H., "these objects to be equally distant from us with the stars, their real dimensions must be such as would fill, on the lowest computation, the whole orbit of Uranus." The mean apparent place of this nebula was obtained by differentiation with 4 Argo Navis.

― 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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