On June 21, during our SWAT telescope meeting in Zwischenbergen, I pointed my DWARF 3 at M27, the Dumbbell Nebula.
M27 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula and one of the brighter deep-sky objects in the summer sky. With its characteristic hourglass-like shape and strong contrast, it was an obvious target to try with the little smart telescope.
At the time, I was still using the DWARF 3 without EQ mode, so the image consists of 76 exposures at 15 seconds each, giving a total integration time of 19 minutes.
The conditions were, once again, very much northern-Germany-in-June: a bright midsummer sky and no true astronomical darkness. Still, M27 showed up clearly and quickly, which made it a very satisfying target for one of my early sessions with the DWARF 3.
The telescope did most of the work quietly in the background while the SWAT meeting carried on around it — exactly the kind of setup I had hoped for when I bought it.
You can read more about the telescope meeting itself here: Midsummer under the stars with the DWARF 3.