The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as M 27, NGC 6853, PK 060-03.1, and The Apple Core Nebula) is a vibrant funeral display of a star estimated to have died around 10,000 years ago. What remains is a white dwarf, surrounded by a glowing cloud of gas that made up its outer layers as a red giant. The Dumbbell Nebula was discovered in 1764, and was the first of its kind to be found. The first observers of this new class of object noted they appeared somewhat similar to a very dim planet through their telescopes, and this is thought to be the source of a misnomer that persists to this day: even though modern astronomers know they have nothing to do with planets, they are still called planetary nebulae.

Captured using a Fujifilm X-A5 and a GSO 6" F/4 Newtonian mounted on a Celestron AVX, and processed with Siril and GIMP. This image is a stack of just under 4 hours total integration time distributed over 155 exposures at 1000 ISO, and calibrated using 40 biases, flats, and darks.