Messier 57 - The Ring Nebula

The first nebula I ever observed was back in 2021, and in 2022 I managed to capture my first image of it. Messier 57, also known as the Ring Nebula, is a planetary nebula located about 2,300 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. This capture in 2025 marks the second time I have imaged this object with one of my telescopes. My first attempt in 2022 was made using my old Omegon Advanced 150/750 telescope, paired with a ZWO ASI224MC planetary camera. This setup is not exactly ideal for deep-sky astrophotography, but thanks to Messier 57’s relatively high apparent brightness of magnitude 8.8, it was still possible to capture the nebula, even with a camera designed for planetary imaging.

So what exactly are we looking at here? When a star similar in mass to our Sun reaches the end of its life, it begins to fuse heavier elements in its core and expands outward. Eventually gravity can no longer counterbalance the outward pressure of radiation, and the star sheds its outer layers into space. These shedded layers form expanding shells of gas, creating what we call a planetary nebula. At the center what remains is a white dwarf, visible in the image 2022 and 2025 images as a small dot. The intense ultraviolet radiation from this white dwarf ionizes the surrounding gas, causing it to glow in bright colors.

The bright ring we see through a telescope is about one light-year across, but it represents only the inner portion of the nebula. Surrounding this ring are much fainter outer shells, which are significantly more difficult to detect. Capturing these subtle outer structures was one of the main goals for this new image. There is a clear difference between the 2022 and 2025 images. To highlight this improvement, I created a short animation comparing the two, which you can watch in the video below!