Aquilla abounds with planetary nebula, and one of the largest and brightest is NGC6781. This large object, some 1.8 minutes in size is 11.8 magnitude and best seen with an OIII filter and at least 8 inches of aperture. The blue central star is 16.7 magnitude, with the main body of the nebula resembling intersecting rings. The amount of interstellar dust precludes any background galaxies in this image, however, within several degrees of this object are several other faint planetary nebula.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST7E w/Enhanced Cooling
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:36 (RGB Binned 2x2)
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 8/10, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  70 F
CCD Temperature:  -20 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, PW Pro, CCDSharp