NGC 6785 - Planetary Nebula
Like many other bright planetary nebulae, NGC 6778 or NGC 6785 (double entry in the NGC catalogue) is located in the constellation Aquila
and was discovered by F.W. Herschel in May 1825.
The distance is about 3,200 light years. The apparent visual magnitude is given as 12.0mag, while the apparent diameter was determined to be 37 arcseconds.
This gives NGC 6785 a true diameter of 0.6 light-years, which places it among the smaller representatives of planetary nebulae. The apparent brightness of
the central star is 15.0mag.
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In my 20" f/3.2 Dobsonian NGC 6785 appears quite bright and shows some structure. While at 120x the planetary nebula is visible as a small oval ring,
at a magnification of 270x you can see that the ring is not really oval but rather rectangular in shape. In addition, the western edge seems to be less bright than the
other sides, the eastern one seemed brightest to me. The centre is darker and the central star can be held every now and then with indirect vision.
