The Ring Nebula

See image to the right.

The Ring Nebula is located in the constellation Lyra, which is pretty much overhead in the night sky here in Utah about 8 PM. The very bright star Vega marks the constellation. The Ring Nebula was formed when a medium mass star, like our own Sun, burned out all its hydrogen. In order to achieve a new equilibrium where it can continue to burn, it expands into a Red Giant, throwing off clouds of matter in an expanding ring. The clouds are illuminated by the central star, which is formed after the Red Giant stage into a White Dwarf. You can just make out this White Dwarf in the center of the ring, which is viewed at a 30 degree angle from Earth, thus its elongation. I’ll add some color once I have imaged some additional frames. The Ring Nebula is a classic example of what are known as Planetary Nebula, due to their circular shapes and large size as seen through a telescope.

Technical Data: Taken with a Meade LX200 GPS 10 inch telescope with a Meade DSI Pro I ccd camera from my backyard in Utah. Twenty three 30 second exposures combined and processed in Photoshop 7.

JP