Home > Nubulae > Planetary Nebulae > M57

M57

"Ring Nebula"
Planetary Nebula
Right Ascension 18h 53m 36s Best Seen 6/15-11/15
Declination 33° 02' 00" Magnitude 8.8
Constellation Lyra

Actual		 Compared
to ...
Distance ~2,300 ly --
Diameter ~1 ly --
Actual Brightness of central star -- 3 (Sun)
Magnitude of central star 14.4
Spectral Type of central star -- G2 V (Sun)
Surface Temperature of star 180,000° F ~18
Age --
Density (gram/cubic cm) -- --

What To Look For Through The Telescope

  1. Recommended eyepiece: 26mm or 40 mm.

  2. This object will look like a faint whitish, hazy smoke ring when seen through the telescope.

M57 "Ring Nebula" Information

  1. The Ring Nebula was the second planetary ever discovered. Antoine Darquier discovered it in 1779.

  2. We are looking at the nebula from the “end,” like looking through a barrel. If we viewed this nebula from a different angle, say from the “side,” it would probably look more like the Dumbbell Nebula.

  3. This nebula is expanding at about 16 miles per second (25 kilometers per second).
Home > Nebulae > Planetary Nebulae > M57 > References
References
Item Updated Notes
Coordinates 2003-01-09 tweaked a bit
Magnitude 2003-01-09 previously: 9.3 – BUT brighter visually than photographically: see general info page and http://messier.seds.org/planetar.html
For magnitude,see http://messier.seds.org/m/m057.html
Distance 2003-01-09 previously 4,100 ly – BUT different at http://messier.seds.org/m/m057.html – new CCD technique measured trig parallax for central star
Diameter 2003-01-09 previously said 0.5 ly – BUT closer to 1 http://messier.seds.org/m/m057.html
Actual Brightness – Star 2003-01-09 probably close enough
Magnitude – Star 2003-01-09 close enough
Spectral Type – Star --
Surface Temperature – Star 2003-01-09 previously gave 100,000 K – BUT giving it in ºF instead
Age --
Density --
Other Information --