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

Jupiter Tonight

Jupiter will be on display this evening, the brightest object in the sky save the Moon. It is currently as close to the Earth as it is going to be for the next 50 years, around 368 million miles away on the other side of Mars. It is some 11 times the size of the Earth. Look for it to rise tonight a bit south of east, ahead of Moonrise. With a pair of binoculars, you should be able to pick out four of its largest moons. I'm going to attempt to capture some closeups with my 10" telescope this evening, and with any luck, will have good "seeing" and be able to post a picture or two.

JP