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Captured by
Bruce Karbal

Bat and Squid

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M57, The Ring Nebula image

M57, The Ring Nebula


Acquisition Details
  • Number of frames:
  • FPS:
  • Focal length:
  • CMI/CMII/CMIII:
Description

This high-resolution image of M57 was taken with a 20 Ritchey-Chretien at New Mexico Skies. The seeing was a little better than average, so details show up very well. This is actually a fairly short exposure - NGC1296, the galaxy below and to the right of M57, is fairly faint. The shorter exposures helped to preserve the details in M57; longer exposures would have smeared them somewhat. The image is a composite of 15 20-second images. The Ritchey used an AP focal reducer to yield f/6.1. This fast focal ratio allowed me to get good detail in such short exposures. I then took a half-dozen 3-minute exposures to provide more body/depth in the areas surrounding M57. The two sets of images were merged in Photoshop using layers. Color exposures were binned 2x2.