2nd light report,m57

[saberonyx]

I'm baaccckkk!. Yes,I know it's impossible you say,13 straight days of the CuRsE. %$(*!>..The clouds and rain cleared away,I got home from work at 5pm",yes it's still light out" I said to my wife as she looked at me crazy.I was hoping for twilight real fast before clouds come back..Well ,at 9pm it was getting dark so I carried the 12" out,placed it on the deck and headed right for m57 (ring n).. I knew just what I wanted to see.Now I'm an old star hopper,so that baby ain't getting away from me,In lay mans terms,It's right between those two stars at the bottom of Lyra(everyone knows that,right?)..BAM .There it was in the middle of my 30mm,yes it was even bigger than I could imagine it.(I never saw it with my own eyes).It was just like they say,a smoke ring.Hey,I'm not going to waste anytime,I want more magnification.I dropped in the 9mm plossl and the smoke ring became twice the size.Thinking about it this morning , I should have looked for that star in the middle,was it there??Would I be able to see it???? (A side note...My son just got home from work and went right up to his room,he didn't know I was on the deck so I text him "get your butt out here,I'm outback stargazing") Yes,we text each other around the house,this is 2012 youknow.He saw m57 right off the bat and described it to me perfectly as I shouted lets look at Saturn again!!..This time I got him to swing the Dob around and line up through the spotting scope ,I taught him how to fine tune the crawford focuser and he got Saturn right away.It looked like all the moons were lined up like a water-fall flowing off of Saturn on the right side!! An amazing site to see.....Hey,thats it for tonight,it might seem simple but i'm starting off slow ....

[EntropyStar]

Nicely done!! The central star is viewable but you need some very dark skies and shed loads of luck!!

I had the pleasure a few weeks ago of trying out my 38mm 2" EP on the ring and I can fit both those stars at the bottom of Lyra into the FOV with M57 in the centre standing out like a sore thumb!

[rory]

glad you had some scope time. the ring nebula is a beutiful object. wish we would have a break in the clouds !!!, feels like its been raining my whole life !

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. M57 is just brilliant, no matter how often you see it.

[mdstuart]

Next time why not move down to M56 which is also a fine object..

or even go the whole hog and move to M27!

Mark

[cotterless45]

Yo, nice. Try a UHC filter on M57 and M27. They stand out very well.

Now chewing the carpet as it's been raining non stop.

Nick.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

A UHC filter is a good idea, in particular on M27.

[Mr Q]

I believe the central star is around 15th magnitude and that the space inside the ring is slightly brighter than the sky outside the ring, this makes seeing the central star very difficult, even for a 16" arpeture.

Even in my avatar's image taken by the Hubble, the central star is just visible and I doubt no one on the ground will be able to see it visually without a monster aperture.

While on the subject, has anyone ever seen the central star visually and if so, what aperture did you use?

Oh, I love thre "Ring" so much, can't get enough of it! Here's how I get my frequent "fix" to satisfy my cravings

RING FEVER

[saberonyx]

you are a true "ring junkie"... ...we had a quick look last night again,it is amazing.. then we shifted over straight up to m13,we found that pretty fast..mdstuart said check out m56,I couldn't get it but that will be my next target.. it looks like it should be just about straight down from m57.I know I shouldn't be using terms like down or up,but I am staying in the same area since at about 10pm for me these objects are overhead!!!

[mdstuart]

Straight down is perfectly fine to use...but as you say for someone in Australia or reading the post in the Autumn then down would not work..

M56 is pretty faint but can just be spotted in a finder and is easy enough in a medium to large reflector..Not like M13 though!

Have you tried M5 which is pretty awesome right now..

Mark

[Mr Q]

I forgot to mention that the central star is a very blue star and thought to be variable (class O or so our eyes are not as good at seeing very blue stars as white, yellow or red ones so seeeing it visually is a true challenge for even monster apertures (16" and bigger).

And yea, a ring junkie indeed. Every time I see the "doughnut", I get the hungry horrors

[swamp thing]

Nice report. Your keen enthusiasm comes accross well.

As Mr Q states the central star is very tricky. Not seen it myself even from ink black skies and a 16" Dob.

[saberonyx]

Thanks for the idea of a UHC filter. It sounds like it will be good to use for many of the things I will be looking at.So I see the central star in m57 is out of reach(at least for me).I am writing all these little things down so I know what I should be picking up for some future purchases for the scope.Right now I am working on some simple wheel system. Since most of my work is done right here in the backyard,I just need to roll it out of the screen room into different yard areas.The scopes temperature is all set to go since the screen room is outdoor temp( ). I just want to tilt it back on the wheels like a hand truck tilting backwards.I already got some nice 10" soft tires and I should be able to work with them.Im pretty handy since my occupation is a custodian(nyc schools).My real title is Fireman/handyman/fancy janitor :laugh:

[Dazzyd]

I managed to see M57 the other night but boy was it faint! Should be much better in a month or two when we get darker nights

I did get rather excited when I saw it, even though it really was faint. Love those moments

[nytecam]

Nicely done!! The central star is viewable but you need some very dark skies and shed loads of luck!!

At ~mag 15 the central star is going to need a large aperture like the OP

[swamp thing]

There was a recent thread on the availability of seeing the central star in M57, here:

http://stargazerslou...7-central-star/

Some interesting points on here that are well worth a read