APOD 1.3- Ring Nebula

The featured picture is not actually a photograph of the Ring Nebula (found in the constellation Lyra), but a sketch done by Frédéric Burgeot. Though it was done beneath the eyepiece of an excellent 40-in. reflecting telescope.

The Ring Nebula, about one light-year across, consists of wavelike, intense ultraviolet layers radiating off of a dying star. The reddish color in the outer rings comes from the ionized hydrogen.