Last new moon I tried the WR Nebula Sh 2-80 "Merrill's Star". The nebula is called after Paul Merill, who wrote about the star first at 1938, after Cora Burwill detected an emission line in the yellow portion of the spectrum through the objective prism spectogram on Mount Wilson. It was misclassified as a PN (Min 1-67; PN G050.1+03.3 )
After I few unsuccessful observation I could see something around the 10mag star WR 124. I observed with my 27" under good to very good transparency and tried several AP's and filter. The only successful combination was 172x (AP 4mm) with Hß filter. With that I could see a very dim, round glow with approx 1' in diameter. Brightest part was like a semicircle structure just S of the star. Another better defined part lies very close just E of the star with a short part to the NW.
What experience do you have with this unusual nebula? What aperture is needed to see the faint glow?
Sh2-80.jpg
homepage with inverted version