From the ten images of M57 the dark current was subtracted, seven survived the quallity selection, they were registered and median combined. The result was smoothed and then sharpend again by means of unsharp masking. The overall result can be seen below.

M57, jpeg, 8k

M57 zoomed

It requires a bit of phantasy to see two encirculated stars. The one at the center is on the way to become a white dwarf. It belongs to the hottest known stars. The temperature exeeds 80000K. Planetary nebulae are marking the end of life of a normal, sun-like star.

A gallery of planetary nebula images recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope can be found here, showing the great variability in appearance of these celestial objects.

More will follow soon ...

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