Viewed with 144x plus a Lumicon OIII filter showed a large apple shaped core of very bright nebulosity with subtle degrees of brightness especially at the top and bottom of the dumbbell shape, it looked fainter at the centre of the dumbbell. The faint extensions on either side of the dumbbell were easily seen making the object appear completely oval and there were areas in these extensions were I detected varying degrees and brightness, I also saw a magnitude 9 star just of the western edge plus the magnitude 13.8 central star although faintly.
M 57 - the dumbbell nebula - 10 inch reflector + Watec
M27 appeared as a large bright object slightly elongated north-south and very mottled in places, there was a very prominent area of brightness to the NNW and the northern part was more mottled than the South and it also had a sharper edge to the nebula. The Apple core shape was easily seen and the two bites at the eastern and western sides were filled with faint nebulosity and the central star was easily seen and plenty of foreground stars were also superimposed upon the nebula itself, a magnitude 9.6 star was NW of the nebula
M 27 - the dumbbell nebula -12 inch reflector
With a 12 inch aperture the dumbbell was very bright and unfiltered as a broad Apple core shaped object the ears faintly visible. Using a Lumicon OIII filter the central part of the dumbbell was nearly the same brightness but then seemed to get fainter around were the central star was located and this was more prominent in an unfiltered view. The WSW tip of the SW side was longer than the SSW side, it seemed to be slightly hooked in shape bypassing a faint star and the ENE and NNE sides on the NE looked broader than the SW side. With filters the ears were seen beautifully as it appeared as a complete oval elongated NW- SE and the SE ear had a bright and quite wide ring around its border, the middle part of the ear was fainter and more diffuse, the NW ear was more rounded in shape and more diffuse. A number of stars were seen in the nebula plus the central star of magnitude 13.8 though this was only seen an filtered.