|
Ring Nebula (M57) |
RA 18 53 35.1 |
Dec + 33 01 41.34 |
Observations on Faulkes North 5/5/08 13:30 UT
|
Filter |
Exposure
(s) |
Result |
|
H
Alpha (1st electron transition in monatomic hydrogen) |
25 |
image, filament detail on outside |
|
O
III (characteristic emission from O2+ and O3+) |
25 |
|
|
O
III |
15 |
|
|
Blue |
15 |
|
|
i'
(near infrared) |
15 |
|
|
u'
(UV) |
15 |
image, lots of structure |
|
sloan
z (slightly wider IR) |
15 |
image, less structure than i' |
Observations on Faulkes North 3/6/08 10:30 UT (cloudy)
|
Filter |
Exposure
(s) |
Result |
|
H
Alpha |
60 |
|
|
H
Beta |
60 |
M57 is one of the one hundred or so Messier objects, ie objects, generally star clusters or nebulas, catalogued by the Astronomer Charles Messier up to 1781.
The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula (nothing to do with planets) which is thought to form when a main sequence star like our own has passed through the Red Giant stage and is cooling down. The star's inner core loses contact with its outer layers and forms a white dwarf star while the outer layers form the nebula. You can see from the u' image that although no longer producing energy by nuclear fusion the white dwarf still has enough energy to excite the inner layers of the nebula in the ultraviolet.
The JPEG below is all of the above filtered images combined using different colours for different layers to try to emphasise the structure of the nebula
The next JPEG contains only the Sloan Z filter (red channel), i' (green) and H Alpha (blue). These are either infra red or in the case of H Alpha narrow band red, but I have used colour and have played with this one to try and make the structure around the nebula stand out.
Below you can be compare mine (rotated) with Hubble's M57 picture - (click Hubble picture for link)
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And lastly, red H Alpha, blue u' and green O III (narrow band green) on a starfield taken in infrared
