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Ring Nebula (M57)
planetary nebula in Lyra
The Ring Nebula in Lyra is a small, neat smoke ring of gas around a dying star. It is one of the easiest planetary nebulae to find but one of the smallest to photograph: at under two arcminutes it needs a long focal length to be more than a dot.
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// Key facts
- Catalog
- M57
- Type
- planetary nebula
- Constellation
- Lyra
- Size
- 1.4′ across
- Brightness
- Magnitude 8.8
- Distance
- about 2,300 light-years
- Peak month (any location)
- Jul
- Typical prime months
- Apr to Sep
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Filter
- OIII or dual-band / UHC filter
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How to image Ring Nebula
- Use 1,000 mm or more. At short focal lengths it is a tiny ring among stars, which still looks nice but shows no detail.
- Seeing matters more for small targets, so shoot when it is steady and use short exposures to keep stars tight.
- Faint background galaxies, such as IC 1296, can turn up in the same field.
Framing: what focal length?
M57 is small, so a "60% of the frame" focal length would be impractical. Here is how much of an APS-C frame it covers at common long focal lengths; expect to crop.
| Focal length | Share of the frame width |
|---|---|
| 1,000 mm | about 2% |
| 2,000 mm | about 3% |
| 3,000 mm | about 5% |
How high does it climb from your latitude?
The highest point M57 reaches in the sky. Above about 60° is excellent, 30° to 60° is workable, and under 30° you are looking through a lot of air.
| Latitude | Highest point | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 55°N (Scotland, Alaska) | 68° | High in the sky |
| 45°N (Minneapolis, Milan) | 78° | High in the sky |
| 35°N (Los Angeles, Tokyo) | 88° | High in the sky |
| 25°N (Miami, Cairo) | 82° | High in the sky |
| 35°S (Sydney, Santiago) | 22° | Stays low |
Also worth imaging
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