Astronomy Adventure – Messier 57, The Ring Nebula

The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula that was created by the release of ionized gas by a red giant star as it runs out of hydrogen fuel and turns into a white dwarf. Larger telescopes can actually capture the white dwarf inside the blue green halo the we can see in these photos. Have a look and then read up on the kilonova that was just detected as two neutron stars collided and sent gravitational ripples throughout the universe.

Technical details:

Scope: Starblast 4.5; tracking on
Magnification: ~30x and 60x
Camera: iPhone6 using NightCap Pro; ISO 8000
Photos: 1×20 sec. image; processing with curves in GIMP