Messier object 57, also known as M57, or the Ring Nebula is a Planetary Nebula in the constellation Lyra. M57 has a magnitude of 8.8 and is approximately 2,300 light years away from Earth. This planetary nebula is south of the bright star Vega and is nestled between the two stars Sheliak, and Sulafat. M57 can be seen in small telescopes and is an excellent visual object to observe. Through the eyepiece, it looks like a gray torus that reminds me of either a smoke ring, cheerio, or donut.
The central dwarf star has a visual magnitude of 14.8 which is difficult to see visually in small telescopes. This star is the one responsible for having created this Planetary Nebula. The giant red star expelled a shell of ionized gases to produce the planetary Nebula we see and know as M57. It's about 200 times more luminous than our sun.
Messier 57 is relatively small through a telescope and is roughly 1.5x1 arc minute in size. An arc minute is 1/60th of a degree since 1 degree is 1/360 of a rotation. M57 is slightly tilted around 30° from our visual vantage point here on Earth.
Images of Messier 57 taken over the last 50 years shown that it is expanding at approximately 1 arc second per century.
The central dwarf star has a visual magnitude of 14.8 which is difficult to see visually in small telescopes. This star is the one responsible for having created this Planetary Nebula. The giant red star expelled a shell of ionized gases to produce the planetary Nebula we see and know as M57. It's about 200 times more luminous than our sun.
Messier 57 is relatively small through a telescope and is roughly 1.5x1 arc minute in size. An arc minute is 1/60th of a degree since 1 degree is 1/360 of a rotation. M57 is slightly tilted around 30° from our visual vantage point here on Earth.
Images of Messier 57 taken over the last 50 years shown that it is expanding at approximately 1 arc second per century.
Image details: Celestron C8 Canon T3i Starshoot Autoguider PHD auto guiding CG5 mount All stacking and editing were done in PixInsight Images: 30 images at 3 minutes each, 50 dark frames, 30 flat frames, 50 bias frames.
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