Skies By Africa

Images of the Heavens By Eric Africa

M57, the Ring Nebula

M57
M57 is one of the planetary nebulae that shows its best at long focal lengths. This image is one of the first images taken with a Celestron C8 to judge that scope's ability to take such longer focal-length shots

M57 lies in Lyra, and is one of the archetype planetary nebulae. I was aware of this nebula even as a child interested in the sciences, and even then its shape made its name so obvious to me.
 
Constellation: Lyra
When Visible: June - November
Distance: 2,300 Light-years
Date: May 2004
Location: West Chester, Ohio
Exposure Details:
L: 3 x 5 Minutes binned 1x1
R: 2 x 5 Minutes binned 2x2
G: 2 x 5 Minutes binned 2x2
B: 2 x 5 Minutes binned 2x2
 
Equipment used: Celestron C8 at f/6.3. Takahashi EM200 Temma-2 mount. ST-7E camera with 5-position filter wheel and Custom Scientific filters.
 
Acquisition Software : CCDSoft, TheSky5
Processing Software: CCDSoft, AIP4Windows, Photoshop 5