Ring Nebula

[Spoon]

I have a 5" scope with a Rigel quick finder on its way. I have an IR filter and not bad light pollution in my back garden given adapted vision. I can't find the Ring Nebula even on a good night. Any tips appreciated

[Moonshane]

wait a month or so and Lyra will be a lot higher at a decent time. it will be obvious if in the right spot then.

[rory]

do you have stellarium spoon ?

[Spoon]

No what is it? I have star walk which I go on every hour to find new things for the sake of it. Can't see them through scope but oh well

[rory]

download stellarium its a FREE software, loads of us use it.

you can zoom in and out, locate thousands of objects ,and even what they look like through a particular eyepiece, its frankly superb for nowt !

[Spoon]

Can you get it on the iPad or just laptop/computer

[rory]

Stellarium here.

[rory]

Can you get it on the iPad or just laptop/computer

p.c , is that no use to you ?

[Spoon]

I have a laptop. Just downloading now

[rory]

right , so once done , its exellent for playing with on rainy nights. theres a few things you may get stuck on, just ask questions here, as many use stellarium and will help with issue's.

now what i do with some objects is zoom in bit by bit and note the star patterns to hop to /from. the ring is not to hard as it sits nicely between two bright stars. if you press (f3) then enter the object you want to locate , and it will take you there.

theres even a telrad setting on stellarium.

have fun with it. i do

[JamesM]

To help you familiarise yourself with M57's location, you might want to take a look at this. Good instructions taking you closer to the object in steady stages. Hope that helps.

James

[RikM]

You can get Stellarium for iPad/Pod as well but it's not as feature packed as the PC version.

[perrin6]

Start on beta Lyra and sweep slowly with the 20mm until you reach gamma Lyra then sweep back to roughly between the two stars and look carefully for a fuzzy looking star - thats it.