It looked like a ring on the sky. Hundreds of years ago astronomers noticed a nebula with a most unusual shape. Now known as M57 or NGC 6720, the gas cloud became popularly known as the Ring Nebula.  It is now known to be a planetary nebula, a gas cloud emitted at the end of a Sun-like star's existence. As one of the brightest planetary nebula in the sky, the Ring Nebula can be seen with a small telescope in the constellation of Lyra. The Ring Nebula lies about 4,000 light years away, and is roughly 500 times the diameter of our Solar System.[*]

	My first shot at the Ring Nebula Taken on 6/25/07 Orion ED80 Prime Focus 8 - 1 minute exposures ISO 800 Unmodified Canon Rebel XT 350D Copyright © 2007 Antonio Pascarella