Tangential Motions and Spectroscopy within NGC 6720, the Ring Nebula
  We have combined recent Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images in the [O III]
5007 and [N II] 6583 lines with similar images made 9.557 years earlier to
determine the motion of the Ring Nebula within the plane of the sky. Scaled
ratio images argue for homologous expansion, that is, larger velocities scale
with increasing distance from the central star. The rather noisy pattern of
motion of individual features argues for the same conclusion and that the
silhouetted knots move at the same rate as the surrounding gas. These
tangential velocities are combined with information from a recent high
resolution radial velocity study to determine a dynamic distance, which is in
basic agreement with the distance determined from the parallax of the central
star. We have also obtained very high signal to noise ratio moderate resolution
spectra (9.4 Angstrom) along the major and minor axes of the nebula and from
this determined the electron temperatures and density in the multiple
ionization zones present. These results confirm the status of the Ring Nebula
as one of the older planetary nebulae, with a central star transitioning to the
white dwarf cooling curve. (Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble
Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is
operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.,
under NASA Contract No. NAS 5-26555 and the San Pedro Martir Observatory
operated by the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.)
