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This image of the famous Ring Nebula in Lyra includes the somewhat elusive outer shells surrounding the bright inner ring. To bring out the outer shells a total of 24 hours of exposure was used (16:5:1:1:1 hours of H-alpha:L:R:G:B).

The galaxy at the upper right is IC 1296 at a distance of 230 million light years. Even though this scene lies inside the summer Milky Way, several more background galaxies are visible. The largest one is the small edge-on galaxy at the far upper right (with a star just below it), which is CMGW 5-08687. An even tinier sliver to the lower left of M57 (and to the right of a bright blue star) is CMGW 5-08765. (CMGW is the Catalog of Galaxies behind the Milky Way, published in 1990 and 1991.) Between the Ring and IC 1296 is a very dim fuzzy spot that is almost certainly a galaxy. It is not listed in NED at all but does have a designation: USNOA2 1200-10005007. However, USNOA2 is supposed to be a catalog of stars, so this designation is not particularly satisfying.