Andrew Cooper
Apr 29, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 153x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Very small. stellar at low power, bright and obvious, round, brighter at the center, found by star hopping from β Her as Smyth suggests

Andrew Cooper
Jun 26, 1998    Sahaurita Road, Vail, AZ (map)
20cm f/10 SCT

Very small planetary near β Her (3-4 degrees NE), difficult to differentiate from a star until higher magnification is used, very bright, no structure visible, stands the use of higher magnification well, used 440x without trouble

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

Planetary nebula, 8" diameter; discovered by Σ. Very bright. D'A.= 8 mg.; small not sharply defined; exactly like a star out of focus, bearing power well. III of 5-1/2in. showed a glow round it. E. of Rosse, intense blue. Secchi thought it resolved with a power of 1500; but the spectroscope shows it gaseous. Rather more than 1° sp 51, 5 mg.

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

Captain William Henry Smyth
Aug 11, 1836    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A small planetary nebula, between the hero's shoulders, which H. aptly compares to a star out of focus. There are four stars in the field, of which that in the sf quadrant is of the 6th magnitude and brightly reddish, affording a fair test of comparison with the pale blue nebula. This curious object is Professor Struve's fifth nebula in the list at the end of the Dorpat Catalogue for 1827; and as it presents a visible disc of 8" in diameter, at a distance probably equal to that of the star near it, the vastness of its dimensions is within the range of reasonable conjecture, however it may stagger the comprehension.

This nebula is situated at about one-third the distance on an east-south-east line from Gemma to Altair, and is to the north-east of γ and β in the left arm of Hercules, at a distance similar to that between those two stars.

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

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