M-57 (NGC-6720) Commonly called "The Ring Nebula" is a bright planetary nebula located in the constellation of Lyra the Lyre. It is the brightest and most well known of this type of object. It is located just slightly north of the midway point between the stars Beta and Gamma Lyrae. It is formed by the luminous shell of gas being expelled by a dying star, just visible in the center of the object. This type of object are called "planetary" nebulae because of the description initially given by its discoverer, de Pellepoix, in 1779 as being "as large as Jupiter, and resembles a planet which is fading". It was added to Messier's catalog as number 57. It lies 2300 light years from Earth and is 1 light year in diameter.
This image, acquired on July 29, 2014, is a 36 minute integration of 4 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2 using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro tools and NoiseWare.