M 57 – The Ring Nebula

Description:

The Lyra Ring Nebula is one of the most popular with amateur astronomers. It is relatively bright, although very small. Looking at it through a telescope creates an unreal impression of seeing a puff of cigarette smoke floating in space. It is located in our galaxy 2,283 light years from us. Its central star is relatively faint and difficult to see with a telescope. By comparison, the spiral galaxy in the background is 260 million light-years away from our galaxy.

The challenge in this photo was to show the faint glowing halo that encircles the ring without overexposing the ring itself which is comparatively much brighter.