View allAll Photos Tagged messier57
TS-Optics UNC 10" f/5, EQ6-R, ZWO ASI178MC, Levenhuk Coma corrector. 23x15s lights, 16 darks, 50 biass
Messier 57, known as the Ring nebula, is a famous planetary nebula located ~ 2,500 light-years away in the constellation of Lyra.
M57 was always a favorite object for me when observing with a small telescope over the years. It should be no surprise that I was interested in imaging it once I began my journey into astrophotography. I have shot this target twice before - once in 2019 when I first started and again one year later in 2020.
These images were not all that great - I really did not know what I was doing, and M57 is a very small target for the scopes I was using.
Lately, though, I had been thinking about trying this again. M57 is well positioned for me during this time of the year, and I wanted to try it again with my AP130 EDT APO - this has the longest focal length of all of my scopes. I also wanted to use the ZWO ASI2600MM-pro camera as this was the most sensitive of the cameras I now have.
I also wanted to really push to get a long integration (assuming that mother nature would cooperate for once!), and I wanted to capture Ha data along with the LRGB Data. I was hoping to capture the faint outer rings of expanding gas that is not seen visually and not typically shown in most amateur Astro Images. Could I capture this detail with a 5" scop in my driveway?
I captured a whopping 17.5 hours of data (a record for me at my location!), only to have to cull 2.5 hours due to high thin clouds that acted to bloat the brighter stars. OUCH!
But the resulting image still has the longest iteration I have ever done, and I successfully captured the outer shells of expanding gas! I was also able to capture some good detail on IC 1296 - the cute little barred spiral galaxy just above M57 in this image. This little guy is 450 million light-years away! It's not often that you have a planetary nebula in the same field of view as a galaxy. One is seen typically looking towards the center of our galaxy, and he other is seen when looking away from teh center toward the outer reaches of space!
The story behind this image, as well as a complete processing walkthrough showing the unorthodox way I ended processing this image, can be seen at:
cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/m57-ha-halo
Please note that for the very first time, I included a short video introduction for the project. I don't normally do videos, so this is an experiment. Let me know if you like this addition (but be kind - I barely know what I am doing with video!).
Thanks for looking! Let me know if you have any questions.
Pat
Messier 57 - The Ring Nebula
Credit: NASA/ESA HST, Spitzer ST, Giuseppe Donatiello
RA: 283,387° Dec: 33,026
The Ring Nebula (Messier 57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in Lyra and it is illuminated by a central white dwarf or planetary nebula nucleus (PNN) of 15.75 visual magnitude.
All the interior parts of this nebula have a blue-green tinge that is caused by the doubly ionized oxygen emission lines at 495.7 and 500.7 nm. In the outer region of the ring, part of the reddish hue is caused by hydrogen emission at 656.3 nm. M57 is an example of the class of planetary nebulae known as bipolar nebulae.
In this composition is all the resolution power of the Hubble Space Telescope. If you download the image and observe it with a good monitor through suitable software, you will be able to see even finer details. The problem is that HST images are rarely published in actual resolution, even NASA and ESA. They are often images rescaled for the web. Also consider that this is also a cutout and uses data from the Spitzer Space Telescope as well.
Messier 57 The Ring Nebula in Lyra, imaged from London on the 28th July 2020.
Celestron Edge HD11 scope & ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera. Unguided 180x10 second (30 mins) through a Ha & Oiii filter. Ha mapped to red, Oiii mapped to green and blue.
This new image shows the dramatic shape and colour of the Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57. From Earth’s perspective, the nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a shaggy boundary. However, new observations combining existing ground-based data with new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data show that the nebula is shaped like a distorted doughnut. This doughnut has a rugby-ball-shaped region of lower-density material slotted into in its central “gap”, stretching towards and away from us.
Credits: NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O'Dell (Vanderbilt University)
Nikon D5300 + Zenithstar 73
iOptron CEM26 + iPolar
SVBony CLSfilter
ZWO ASI224MC + WO Uniguide 120mm
30 x 180 sec -- ISO800
AstroM1
(r2.02)
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian, EQ6 Syntrek Mount & Modified Philips SPC 900NC Webcam.
Captured using Sharpcap
25 frames @ 25s
10 Dark frames
Processed using Deep Sky Stacker.
Levels slightly adjusted with G.I.M.P.
Sharpcap Settings:
[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera (LX Mode)]
Resolution=640x480
Colour Space / Compression=YUY2
Exposure (s)=25.2476670702873
Brightness=90
Contrast=40
Saturation=72
Gamma=3
ColorEnable=255
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=30
The Ring Nebula
A planetary nebula - a star has ejected its outer layers as it nears the end of its life. The central remnant white dwarf gives off extremely hard UV light which makes the shells of gas fluoresce. Blue/Green is Oxygen. Red is Hydrogen and Nitrogen. Yellow is an overlap of Green + Red.
At a diameter of 1 arc minute, it is only about 60 pixels across at this image scale. The central white dwarf which has a surface temp of about 100000c can just be seen.
Diameter is 1 arcminute
ZWO ASI2600MC 61 x 3 minute subs at gain 100, offset 50 at 0c.
Equinox ED 900mm f/7.5 scope x0.85 focal reducer.
IDAS P3 LPS 2" filter in focal reducer.
SkyWatcher EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives.
Guided by PHD2 via PrimaLuce 240mm f/4 guidescope.
Atmospheric
Clear throughout. No subs lost.
Light pollution; 20.02 measured with Unihedron SQM (L)
Calibration
50 flats (EL panel at 1/4 second)
50 darks at 0c
50 bias at 0c and 1/16000s
Processing
PixInsight 1.8.8
Polar Alignment:
“Resume from Park” - I left the scope up from last time.
Error measured by PHD2= 0.2 arc minute.
RA drift + 1.27 arcsec/min
Dec drift +0.05 arcsec/min
Guiding:
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/PrimaLuce Lab 240/60mm guide scope. Multi-star guiding.
RA RMS error 0.61 arcsec.
Dec RMS error 0.64 arcsec.
Astrometry:
Resolution ............... 0.987 arcsec/px
Focal distance ........... 785.59 mm
Pixel size ............... 3.76 um
Field of view ............ 33' 10.2" x 26' 8.7"
Image center ............. RA: 18 53 35.937 Dec: +33 01 49.32
There was a little tilt between focuser draw tube and focal reducer which distorted the stars. I used Free Transform in Photoshop to distort and tilt the image back again!
Overall, I need to get the colour balance sorted out and probably use no more than about 2 minute exposures.
A planetary nebula 2,500 light years away in the constellation Lyra. Planetary Nebula are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding area by a star in the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf. (Wikipedia)
53 180s lights (2 hours 40 minutes) with 39 flats and 53 bias. Dithered.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100.
ISO: 400. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector. IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box and a white t-shirt.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - Stellarium Scope, Stellarium, Poth Hub, EQMOD, All Sky Plate Solver, PHD Guiding 2 and PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and edited in Star Tools.
Moon: - 50% waning, rose at 3pm when it was already getting light.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 8 in Davyhulme, Manchester.
Seeing: - Good
Notes: - Having set up for about 9pm it was still very much daytime; the north star finally appear at about 10pm but it was getting on 10.30 before I could do the SharpCap polar alignment. According to the FLO clear skies app, it was the first night with just twilight and no night. I had to do some weeding while waiting to get going. Also, it went down below 0 which is crazy for the middle of May. I am glad I a dithering these days and not relying on darks with the major shifts in temperature.
How I will get on as the days get even longer will be interesting. It must take a week to get any decent exposure time.
The Ring Nebula in Lyra; one of my favourite celestial objects and one I look forward to every year. Not only is it bright and colourful, this beautiful object is a perfect example of what will happen to our Sun in a about four billion years. If you look closely you can just see the white dwarf in the centre.
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula, 2,300 light years away from Earth and is found in the northern constellation of Lyra. Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf.
12 x 8 minute exposures at 400 ISO
11 x dark frames
10 x flat frames
21 x bias/offset frames (subtracted from flat frames only)
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Celestron NexStar 127 SLT
GoTo AltAz mount with homemade wedge
Orion 50mm Mini Guide Scope
ZWO ASI120 MC imaging and guiding camera
Canon 700D DSLR
Also known as the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra. It is also a planetary nebula with a distance of 2300 +/-1500-700 light years. This exposure is three and a half hours total integration. Nearby (although much further away!) is a cross-linked barred spiral galaxy known as IC 1296. It sits at a rough distance of 235 million light years.
Captured using a 10-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a Nikon DSLR at the Loowit Imaging observatory in Shelton, Washington.
The Ring Nebula (also cataloged as Messier 57, M57 and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star’s hot core, called a white dwarf. M57 is about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.
Right ascension: 18h 53m 35.079s
Declination: +33° 01′ 45.03″
Distance: 2567±115 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 8.8
Apparent dimensions (V): 230″ × 230″
Constellation: Lyra
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90 SCT Telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 3 hours 43 minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGX-L pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: July 5, 2025. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The last time we imaged the Ring Nebula was 6 years ago so it was due for a revisit. I like planetary nebulae not just for their vibrant colours and interesting shapes, but also because they are a preview of what will happen to our star, the Sun, in about 6 billion years time.
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57, and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula 2,570 light-years away in the northern constellation of Lyra. M57 is found south of the bright star Vega, which forms the northwestern vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism. A planetary nebula is formed when a star of intermediate mass, about 1-8 solar masses (like our Sun), during the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf, expels a vast luminous envelope of ionized gas into the surrounding interstellar space.
The blue-green tinge in the middle is caused by ionized oxygen. The reddish hue on the outer region is caused by hydrogen.
15/06/2023
018 x 480-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
020 x dark frames
020 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 24 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: Zwo ASI 1600MC Pro
x2 Barlow with extension tube (x3.3)
Effective focal length: 2,475 mm f/16.5
Filter: None
A planetary nebula nicknamed the Dumbbell Nebula in the constellation Vulpecula at a distance of 1,360 light years. It has a diameter of 2 light years across and is easily visible in binoculars and a fantastic sight in a telescope at moderate magnification. 4 hour total exposure time on this one.
Captured using a 10-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a Nikon DSLR at the Loowit Imaging observatory in Shelton, Washington.
The Ring Nebula M57 as you have (perhaps) never seen it before.
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
RA: 283,387° Dec: 33,026
The Ring Nebula (Messier 57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra and it is illuminated by a central white dwarf or planetary nebula nucleus (PNN) of 15.75 visual magnitude. All the interior parts of this nebula have a blue-green tinge that is caused by the doubly ionized oxygen emission lines at 495.7 and 500.7 nm. In the outer region of the ring, part of the reddish hue is caused by hydrogen emission at 656.3 nm. M57 is an example of the class of planetary nebulae known as bipolar nebulae.
With ultra-deep exposures a clear outer ring emerges with predominant [OIII] emission.
Here is a shot I snapped of Messier 57 - The Ring Nebula (M57) on Sunday April 19, 2015 at Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown, Rhode Island, USA. Residing at 2,600 light years distant, M57 is a planetary nebula with a diameter of about 2.6 light years. Found in the constellation Lyra, M57 is a small to mid-sized star transitioning into a white dwarf.
Photo Details:
Camera: Canon 60D MagicLantern
1370mm
f/9
Exposure: 120 seconds * 10 frames
This is a median composite of 10 shots to reduce noise.
-Scott MacNeill
The Ring Nebula (also cataloged as Messier 57, M57 and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star’s hot core, called a white dwarf. M57 is about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra, and is best observed during August. Discovered by the French astronomer Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in 1779, the Ring Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 8.8. It is easy to find, as it lies about halfway between the two 3rd -magnitude stars “Sheliak” and “Sulafat” which form the bottom of Lyra’s lyre; however, it requires a moderately-sized telescope to see its beautiful ring-like details. (REF: science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night...)
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 18h 53m 35.079s
Declination: +33° 01′ 45.03″
Distance: 2567±115 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 8.8
Apparent dimensions (V): 230″ × 230″
Constellation: Lyra
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 168 x 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DeepSkyStacker and PixInsight software. Image Date: May 2, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The Ring Nebula (Messier 57) in the middle of the stars Beta (right) and Gamma (left) Lyrae
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals previously unseen details of the Ring Nebula.
The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula's center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed astronomers to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect.
The Ring Nebula is a well-known planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star's hot core, called a white dwarf.
The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. The structure measures roughly one light-year across.
These Hubble observations were taken September 19, 2011, by the Wide Field Camera 3. In the image, the deep blue color in the center represents helium; the cyan color of the inner ring is the glow of hydrogen and oxygen; and the reddish color of the outer ring is from nitrogen and sulfur.
For more information please visit:
hubblesite.org/image/3170/news_release/2013-13
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA) – ESA/Hubble Collaboration
With the Moon out, I decided to have another go at a favorite object, the Ring Nebula. This object is easy to see in a telescope, and shows color in a very short exposure. Even though the Moon was out, the sky was very clear and M57 was almost at the zenith.
In addition to imaging M57, I also wanted to see if I could capture any structural detail on IC 1296, a 14th-magnitude barred spiral galaxy very close to M57 (look slightly below and to the left of M57). I was pleased to capture the classical galaxy S-shape along with a central bar. As for M57, there is a good deal of detail presented, being much better than my last attempt almost a year ago:
IC 443
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
Tair-3S 300mm f/4.5
Imaging cameras:Canon EOS 4000D
Synta EQ5
Guiding telescopes: (DIY) Achro 80/400
M57, the Ring Nebula, flanked by Sheliak and Sulafat, in the constellation Lyra.
2020-06-25
Olympus Pen-F Digital
M.Zuiko 40-150 f2.8 PRO
44 exposures @ISO 1600, ranging from 15s to 30s, stacked using SiriL
Taken using my homemade barndoor mount, from my balcony in the centre of light-polluted Montreal.
Messier 57 - The Ring Nebula
Credit: HST LS / Giuseppe Donatiello
RA: 283,387° Dec: 33,026
The Ring Nebula (Messier 57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra and it is illuminated by a central white dwarf or planetary nebula nucleus (PNN) of 15.75 visual magnitude. All the interior parts of this nebula have a blue-green tinge that is caused by the doubly ionized oxygen emission lines at 495.7 and 500.7 nm. In the outer region of the ring, part of the reddish hue is caused by hydrogen emission at 656.3 nm. M57 is an example of the class of planetary nebulae known as bipolar nebulae.
Messier 57
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello, Giovanni Vincenzo Donatiello
Maksutov 127/1500mm + Canon EOS 4000D su EQ5
(900 sec @ 400/3200/6400 ISO)
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula 2,300 light-years from Earth and is found in the northern constellation of Lyra. Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf.
17 x 4 minute exposures at 800 ISO
3 x 8 minute exposures at 400 ISO
16 x dark frames
10 x flat frames
46 x bias/offset frames
92 minutes total exposure time
Guided with PHD
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Celestron NexStar 127 SLT
GoTo AltAz mount with homemade wedge
Orion 50mm Mini Guide Scope
ZWO ASI120 MC imaging and guiding camera
Canon 700D DSLR
This is a reprocessing of data taken on 1st August 2015 in order to try out and learn a different capture and processing software package, Maxim DL, to see if it's any better than Nebulosity. It's hard to say for sure which is the best at this stage as both have their pros and cons but I quite like the result of this test.
17 x 4 minute subs at 800 ISO
9 x dark frames
11 x flat frames
24 x bias/offset frames
Post processed in Photoshop
This new image shows the dramatic shape and colour of the Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57. From Earth’s perspective, the nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a shaggy boundary. However, new observations combining existing ground-based data with new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data show that the nebula is shaped like a distorted doughnut. This doughnut has a rugby-ball-shaped region of lower-density material slotted into in its central “gap”, stretching towards and away from us.
More information: www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1310a/
Credit:
NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University).
Looking Down a Barrel of Gas at a Doomed Star
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope captured the sharpest view yet of the most famous of all planetary nebulae: the Ring Nebula (M57). In this October 1998 image, the telescope looked down a barrel of gas cast off by a dying star thousands of years ago. This photo reveals elongated dark clumps of material embedded in the gas at the edge of the nebula; the dying central star floating in a blue haze of hot gas. The nebula is about a light-year in diameter and is located some 2,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lyra.
The colors are approximately true colors. The color image was assembled from three black-and-white photos taken through different color filters with the Hubble telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Blue isolates emission from very hot helium, which is located primarily close to the hot central star. Green represents ionized oxygen, which is located farther from the star. Red shows ionized nitrogen, which is radiated from the coolest gas, located farthest from the star. The gradations of color illustrate how the gas glows because it is bathed in ultraviolet radiation from the remnant central star, whose surface temperature is a white-hot 216,000 degrees Fahrenheit (120,000 degrees Celsius)
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA)
Raw data processed from Liverpool Telescope public archive:
R,G,B,Ha:30,30,30,30x90s bin2
Telescope: Ritchey-Chrétien Cassegrain 2.0m@f/10
Camera: IO:O
Appropriately called the Whirlpool galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is interacting with nearby galaxy NGC 5195 and both have a rough distance that is estimated to be between 15 and 35 million light-years away. Four and a half hours' exposure integration combined with data collected in 2017.
Captured using a 10-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a Nikon DSLR at the Loowit Imaging observatory in Shelton, Washington.
The Messier Catalog, sometimes known as the Messier Album or list of Messier objects, is one of the most useful tools in the astronomy hobby. In the middle of the 18th century, the return of Halley's comet helped to prove the Newtonian theory, and helped to spark a new interest in astronomy. During this time, a French astronomer named Charles Messier began a life-long search for comets. He would eventually discover 15 of them. On August 28, 1758, while searching for comets, Messier found a small cloudy object in the constellation Taurus. He began keeping a journal of these nebulous (cloudy) objects so that they would not be confused with comets. This journal is known today as the Messier Catalog, or Messier Album. The deep sky objects in this catalog are commonly referred to as Messier objects.
The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888 as a new version of John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. It is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies. Dreyer also published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues, describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects.
This new image shows the dramatic shape and colour of the Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57. From Earth’s perspective, the nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a shaggy boundary. However, new observations combining existing ground-based data with new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data show that the nebula is shaped like a distorted doughnut. This doughnut has a rugby-ball-shaped region of lower-density material slotted into in its central “gap”, stretching towards and away from us.
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula 2,300 light-years away from Earth in the northern constellation of Lyra. Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf.
This shot is an experiment to see if it's possible to get a bigger image of a deep space object using a Barlow lens without losing too much detail. The result, though slightly disappointing, shows it can be done with a bright enough object but the challenges in doing so hardly make it worthwhile. This image was made with a x2 Barlow which cuts out a lot of the available light. Also it made the imaging process susceptible to the slightest vibration making it almost impossible to get pin sharp stars which meant discarding most of the subs. The final image had to be cropped rather radically because of the border around the image caused by so much movement between shots. So, not something I'm likely to try again any time soon but I'm glad I did the experiment.
47 x 15 second exposures at 6400 ISO
14 x 30 second exposures at 6400 ISO
20 x Dark frames
24 x Flat frames
24 x Bias/offset frames (subtracted from flat frames only)
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop.
Imaged & processed using the Bradford Robotic Telescope's FLI MicroLine fitted Celestron C14. Further processing done using FITS Liberator & Pixelmator 3.0 FX.
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57 or NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra.[5] Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf. - WIki
Taken remotely on a Takahashi TOA-150 apochomatic refractor (150mm/1095mm) with a SBIG ST2000XMC CCD located in New Mexico
La nébuleuse de la Lyre (M57) est une nébuleuse planétaire, c'est-à-dire ce qu'il reste d'une étoile de taille comparable au Soleil après sa mort. L'image révèle aussi une galaxie beaucoup plus lointaine et réputée plus difficile à photographier, IC1296. Image réalisée en empilant près de 200 clichés pris avec une caméra Altaïr GP-Cam couleur au foyer d'un télescope Skywatcher 150/750. L'empilement et le pré-traitement ont été faits avec Deep Sky Stacker et le traitement ultérieur avec GIMP.
Ring Nebula in Lyra (M57)...a planetary nebula 2,300 light-years from Earth.
This is an experiment to see how feasibleit is to capture deep sky objects using the ZWO ASI120MC camera instead of the Canon DSLR. The advantages in doing so are getting larger object because of the smaller sensor and not wearing out the shutter of the DSLR....the disadvantages are a much lower resolution and a more grainy image with little extra detail (again because of the smaller sensor). Just like with the experiment in using a Barlow lens with a DSLR to image this object, the conclusion is that it's probably better to crop a larger, hi-res image but I wanted to know if this was possible and what the quality would be like if it was possible. Apart from the difficulty in finding the object with such a small sensor, the process was fairly easy with fewer of the problems that cropped up with Barlow experiment. And the result, though a bit grainy, does show previously unseen detail like the nebula's distinctive shape and the white dwarf in the centre of the Nebula.
3 x 45 second exposures
33 x 20 second exposures
37 x 10 second exposures
17 dark frames
No flat or bias frames
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop.
Last night's effort.
C9.25 prime focus, f10
ZWO ASI120mm at 50% gain, binned 2x2,
LRGB 20 each x 30s lights, 25 darks. 5 degree C.
AZ-EQ6 unguided
Processed in Nebulosity
Squeezing a little more detail out each time I image M57. Happy considering this is an uncooled camera and no guiding.
This is the same area of the sky seen in the daytime photo I took a few days ago. Instead of the dozen or so stars I managed to capture when the sun was up, many thousands are visible at night. If you zoom in, you can even see the tiny green Ring Nebula (Messier 57 / NGC 6720).
La nébuleuse planétaire de la Lyre, l'objet 57 du catalogue Messier. C'est le nuage de gaz laissé après la mort lente d'une étoile de masse comparable à celle du Soleil. Les couleurs sont dues aux émissions des différents gaz : d'abord de l'hydrogène (en rouge), et quand l'étoile était plus vieille de l'oxygène (en bleu et vert). Il ne reste au centre qu'une minuscule naine blanche, extrêmement dense mais qui ne fait plus de réactions nucléaires...
Image réalisée à partir de 20 clichés (plus 9 "darks") réalisés avec une caméra GP-Cam au foyer d'un télescope Skywatcher 150/750 (type Newton, ouverture 150 mm, focale 750 mm), équipé d'une monture NEQ3 dont le suivi laissait un peu à désirer, par une nuit sans lune mais avec un léger voile (solstice d'été...), avec des pauses de 3 seconde par cliché. Images empilées avec Deep Sky Stacker et traitée ensuite avec GIMP en suivant un protocole assez classique pour les objets du ciel profond (merci Arnaud Thiry, alias "le studio de poche", alias "Astronogeek" pour tes vidéos indispensables !)
Je suis encore en train d'apprendre comment faire ce genre d'image, mais c'est pour l'instant une des plus réussies que j'ai obtenue...
Taken under the bright skies of Berlin. Stacked 13 single frames with an exposure time of 50 seconds each.
Olympus E-P5, TS 70 f/6.7, ISO 3200
The Ring Nebula (also known as the Messier 57) is located in the constellation Lyra. It is a planetary nebula 2300 light years away. This image was taken by Doug Spalding from my back porch in Overland Park, KS. Equipment used was a CGE1100 telescope at F/10 with an Orion DSCI II imager. 10 images X 60sec each. Stacked with Maxim DL essentials.