M57 August 2007

I've been working toward a new image of M57. I wanted to capture both stars in the middle of the ring. The clouds here finally broke in August. On August 9th, I was able to set up the Vixen R135S on the LXD75. The image posted here was taken at f/5.3 through the DSI Pro. The stars are smaller points in the Vixen than through the achromat. Also, with the newtonian, I need no IR filter, as all wavelengths line up on one plane. This image is 10 minutes worth of 8-second exposures stacked and stretched in Registax, unguided. One can see three stars inside the loop of the ring, and one star on the outer edge. If the photometric measurements of others around the web are correct, stars dimmer than magnitude 16 appear in this image.