Discovered by Pierre Mechain on September 5, 1780, the Little Dumbbell Nebula is one of the fainter objects on the Messier List. This nebula is also known as the Cork Nebula, Butterfly Nebula and Barbell Nebula as well as having the identification tag NGC 650. The central star ionizing the gas in this object is visible in the above image at the very center of the nebula, it shining at magnitude 16.6. The distance to M 76 is not very well known, with estimates ranging from 1800 to 8500 light years.
The seeing was somewhat poor on the night this image was taken, hence the moderately bloated star shapes. In spite of that, the wide color variation of the surrounding star field offers a pleasing palette onto which the Little Dumbbell is framed.