Lying 1200 light years away in the same arm of the Milky Way as our own yellow Sun sits the Dumbbell Nebula. Discovered in 1764 and catalogued as M27 by the French astronomer Charles Messier this deep sky object is actually a planetary nebula — the stellar debris ejected from a dying star.
It was here early on Sunday morning (12.04.09) that I turned the giant binoculars as I attempted to eke out a glimpse of this distant cosmic fatality. The atmospheric conditions were reasonably good, but due to Vulpecula’s +16° elevation the light pollution from the nearby town of Grangemouth overwhelmed the view slightly. Despite this the nebula was still visible against the hazy sky glow as an opaque almost spherical white smudge that brightened subtly when using averted vision.
The realisation that you are actually gazing upon a vast expulsion of superheated gas, and plasma spanning perhaps 1 light year is very compelling to say the least. During the 35 minutes that I spent observing M27 I began to wonder what it would be like to see this spectacle from within the nebula itself. Inspired by that thought I produced the digital render above which shows the view from the desolate surface of a fictitious dwarf planet in orbit around the hot central star. Science fact or science fiction? I’m not really sure to be honest, but it certainly would be an awe inspiring sight to see the Dumbbell Nebula in this way.
Tags: Charles Messier, M27, Milky Way, Planetary Nebula, Strathspey 25x100, The Dumbbell Nebula, Vulpecula