Observed the very famous Ring nebula, a planetary nebula, not a ring nebula, in the constellation Lyra. It measures about 1 arc minute in diameter.
The "Ring" is an expanding cloud of gas that has been ejected from it's dying, red giant star, leaving a burned-out, white dwarf core in the center. This disconnected and expanding cloud of gas represents about 20 percent of the red giant's mass after fusion has stopped in its core, as will also be the case in the fate of our Sun in about 5 billion years.
There are about 1500 planetary nebula in our galaxy.
Observation 2
M56: With the scope I also observed the globular cluster M56 - R.A. 19h, 16.6m, Dec. +30º, 11'.
M56 (NGC 6779) is 32,900 light years distance, that's about 197,400 trillion miles away. and is about 85 light years across. But, get this, it's actually heading in our direction at at a whopping 145 km/sec. 
Audio Clips
- Einstein discusses his special theory of relativity. text
- Apollo 13 reports "Houston, we have a problem
- Apollo 11 astronauts describe the Earth from 130,000 miles in space.
Other stuff
Reference
GskySatellites
Recent Posts
Planetary Society Weblog
New Scientist Space - Astronomy
New Scientist Space - Astrobiology
Are We Alone? - SETI Science and Skepticism podcast
- CURRENT MOON
Moon Phase Calendar
Satellite passover information
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