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M57 is a planetary nebula in Lyra and is about 2,000 light years distant.
Planetary nebulae come in a variety of shapes. This one, visually
looks like a smoke ring even from urban skies. From very dark sky and
with large aperture telescopes, the central star may be visible. In
the top part of the image, the barred spiral galaxy IC 1296 is also visible.
This galaxy is substantially dimmer at magnitude 15.5 compared to M57 at
8.8. Special processing was used to bring out this galaxy in this
image.
Back to Messier Gallery
Date: 5/12/2007
Location:
CRO
Telescope: LX200 10" SCT, f/10
Mount: AP-1200
Camera: Hutech modified
Canon 350D, ISO 800
Exposure Count: 16 @ 5 minutes, 1 hours, 20 minutes total
exposure.
Guiding: CCD Soft with ST402ME, Orion 80ED
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Post Processing: |
ImagesPlus: Dark and flat calibration, align and
combine, digital development
Photoshop CS2: Smart sharpen, levels, curves
NeatImage: Noise reduction
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