A just finished digital painting of NGC 6751, a planetary nebula in the constellation Aquila. The nebula, also known as the Glowing Eye Nebula, is approximately 6,500 light-years away and 0.8 light-years in diameter. It is expanding at a rate of about 40 kilometers per second. The central star appears to be in its heating phase following the ejection of its giant-star envelope. Still losing mass, the star is on its way to becoming a white dwarf- the eventual fate of our own Sun.

The painting is based on a Hubble Space Telescope image taken in 1998.  There are two images- the full painting and a detail of the central portion, better showing the brush work.