Hobbies - A thread for other things we kill time doing.

[Kepler]

M 27 Dumbbell Nebula



Surprised and pleased I got true color! Here is what it looks like with a half a million dollars of equipment:



I like mine just fine.

 

[Kepler]

Best image to date: not touched up in any way, this is how it appears through the scope.

M 57 (the Ring Nebula) was formed thousands of years ago when a dying, sun-like star exhausted its nuclear fuel and shed its outer layers of gas into space. This glowing, expanding shell of stellar material is illuminated by the incredibly hot, exposed core of the original star, which is now a compact white dwarf.

When (it) formed roughly 1,600 to 2,000 years ago, its gas shell was smaller, denser, and closer to its hot central star. Theoretical models suggest it was likely intrinsically brighter in its infancy—potentially shining up to several hundred times the luminosity of our Sun—before the expanding gas cooled and diffused over the centuries.

(T)he light blue 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.

M 57 Ring Nebula. 2,570 light years away.