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Messier 57 The Ring Nebula
Imaged by Martin S. Ferlito copyright
Gstar-EX
Integrating Video Camera
8" SCmidt-Cassegrain on Vixen GP Mount, Stepper Driven.
Information
provided by Seds.org
M57 was the second planetary nebula to be discovered (in January 1779),
15 years after the first one, M27.
Antoine
Darquier de Pellepoix (Darquier),
who discovered the Ring Nebula only a few days before
Charles
Messier found and
cataloged it,
described it as
"a dull nebula, but perfectly outlined; as large as Jupiter and looks
like a fading planet." This comparison to a planet may have influenced
William Herschel,
who found the
objects of this type resembling the planet newly discovered by him,
Uranus,
and introduced the name "Planetary Nebulae". Herschel described
M57
as "a perforated nebula, or ring of stars;" this was the first mention
of
the ring shape. Oddly, the inventor of the name "Planetary Nebula" did
not
count this most prominent representative in this object class, but
described
it as a "curiosity of the heavens", a peculiar object. Herschel also
identified some of the superimposed stars, and correctly assumed that
"none [of them] seems to belong to it."
