A smoke-ring of gas puffed off by a dying star.
Also called: M57.
Famous donut-shaped planetary nebula, actually a barrel shape seen end-on.
Planetary nebula: The shell a dying Sun-like star puffs off. Nothing to do with planets. Every kind of thing there is →
Look in the constellation Lyra.
Best placed from the Northern Hemisphere.
Star-hop: Visible in a modest 4-inch scope as a tiny grey smoke ring.
Finding it: Tucked between the two bottom stars of Lyra's parallelogram.
The Planetarium works out where it actually is from your own place and the date — including whether it is above the horizon at all tonight.
A small, round, faintly coloured puff around a tiny central star.
On the 100-meter-track scale model of the Milky Way, the Ring Nebula would be about 2.6 meters from the Sun. Light takes 3 thousand years to get here from the Ring Nebula, so what you are looking at is the Ring Nebula as it was 3 thousand years ago.
| Distance from us | 2,600 light-years |
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Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:
Clear tonight? The Planetarium will show you what is worth a look. Then just go out.