NGC 2610

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H IV-035

Discovered in 1785 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "a small star with a brush sp FS."

John Herschel (1847) Cape Observations

Observed by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "a small cometic or fan-shaped wisp of nebula attached to a star 13th mag, there is a star 7th mag 10 seconds following, 2' north."

Published comments

Helwan Obs. Bulletin No 15 (1915)

F, pS, R, annular, diam 40 seconds, star in centre, star 13 mentioned in NGC not connected."

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 13.5 mag planetary nebula.

Modern observations

Walter Scott Houston

Houston notes that, under dark skies, he has seen it with a 6-inch scope. In 1972 he wrote: "For very large scopes there is the difficult planetary NGC 2610. Not only is it as small as 0.6' but its surface brightness is very low, only about 1/10 of that of the Ring nebula. A 12-inch might show it, but I have never seen it with anything less than 16-inches aperture. The 20-inch refractor at Van Vleck Observatory shows it distinctly."

Steve Coe

Steve Coe (1992, The Deep-Sky Observer, Webb Society, Issue 1) observing with a 17.5-inch f/4.5 at 100x notes: "pF, pS, found at 100x, better at 165x. 300x too much. Star in neb. is easy, neb is comet shaped. Reminds me of a small faint Hubble's Variable Neb."

Hartung, E.J. (1968) Astron.Obj.South.Tel

Hartung notes: "This attractive obejct is a round pale grey rather faint planetary nebula about 40 arcsec across in a beautiful starry field. A faint star 13th mag lies on the nf edge and a bright orange star 3' nf is in fine contrast . . the nebula is faint with 15cm."

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes: "13.6M; 40" x 30" extent; don't let magnitude estimate dissuade you! soft but distinct glow with 13M star on N edge; N-filter helps mightily; bright star just N and a bit E is 6.5M SAO 154395."

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Pretty Faint, pretty Small found at 100X, better at 165X. 300X too much. Star in neby is easy, neby is comet-shaped. Reminds me of a small and faint Hubble's Variable Neb.

Brian Skiff

V=6.6 * lies 3'.5 NE. triangle *s lie 2'.2 E, 1'.3 NE, 21" NE.

15cm - barely seen.

25cm - mod f, nrby SW of a * in triangle next to br *. no annularity. 40" diam,

uniform grey, smooth edges.

30cm - easily seen @ 140x on SW tip of an oblique triangle of m12 *s, which

itself lies 3' SW of m6.5 *. 220x: sl broad concen, 45" diam w/diffuse

edges. the SWrn * of the triangle lies just on the edge of the pn, which

seems to have brtr part elong away from this *; poss only because of

this *. grey color, no annularity.

Contemporary observations

Auke Slotegraaf

1995

This is a very interesting object. It lies on one side of a triangle of 7-8th mag stars, nearest the brightest (7th mag) star. Observing with a 10-inch f/5, it can be glimpsed with a 18mm eyepiece as a faint nebulous presence, although this might be just a faint star. The 10mm eyepiece shows it clearly, but it looks like a very faint star surrounded by nebulosity. Averted vision shows a very bright, star-like point which lies within the nebulosity, but not in the centre; I get the impression that it lies on the north-eastern edge of the round glow. Most interesting.

Magda Streicher

2010 February 12

Location: Alldays

12-inch f/10 SCT (218x 346x)

The planetary nebula displays a round shape easily seen with an even brightness. The planetary is situated in the mist of faint stars seen in a V shape. The use of high power is needed to observe the planetary nebula, although with a 0111 filter it is been lifted out well. The planetary displays a soft grey colour which is obvious.