Ring Nebula (Messier 57), the iconic planetary nebula in the constellation of Lyra. The nebula was formed when the progenitor star expelled its outer layers into interstellar space forming multiple shells of ionized gas surrounding the white dwarf that remains (seen as a blue star in the center).
This image was produced using the data taken over last four years with 250mm f/4.0 Lacerta PhotoNewton and ZWO ASI183MM Pro and ZWO ASI294MM Pro cameras. To reduce the effects of atmospheric seeing and cover the wide dynamic range of the target, a series of RGB exposures with duration ranging from 5s to 180s were taken. To supplement RGB data and reveal the extended outer shells, a narrowband exposures through H-alpha filter were added to the R band data. The final RGB images are stacks of exposures with star FWHM < 3" to reduce the effect of poor seeing.
Exposure information:
R: 273x5s (ASI183MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 182x10s (ASI294MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 87x20s (ASI183MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 17x90s (ASI294MM Pro, Gain 108, bin 1x1)
G: 158x5s (ASI183MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 302x10s (ASI294MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1)
B: 54x5s (ASI183MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 195x10s (ASI294MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 59x20s (ASI183MM/ASI294MM, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 10x180 (ASI294MM Pro, Gain 108, bin 1x1)
Ha: 24x300s (ASI294MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1), 14x600s (ASI294MM Pro, Gain 200, bin 1x1)
Total exposure: 8.6 hrs
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