M57?

[Swedeman2013]

On a very clear night I tried in vain to locate m57, which my software said should be easy to spot! I've got a 200p and gazed around Vega, what am I doing wrong?!

[Demonperformer]

Depends what you mean by "around" Vega - they are actually 6-7 degrees apart.

You will be able to see it in an 8" scope (I saw it in my 6SE from a streetlight-surrounded area) - if you have any light pollution, an LPR filter will help.

Starting from Vega, find the 'diamond' pattern to the south of it - delta and zeta closest to Vega and gamma and beta further away. Then scan the line between beta and gamma - they are about two degrees apart - and M57 is about half way between them. It is about 1.5x - 2x the angular size of Jupiter - but much fainter.

Good hunting!

[cotterless45]

M57 is a very neat target. It'll take magnification and a HHC filter.

if you look at Vega you'll see it makes a triangle on the left hand side . The top sparkle is the double double , another neat target,

Nick.

[wookie1965]

Heres a link might make it a bit easier. I have seen it in my 6 in scope its like a smoke ring.

http://www.oneminuteastronomer.com/5862/ring-nebula-m57/

[dick_dangerous]

I find it quite easy to mistake for a star - it's disc-shaped though, and fuzzy. Stands up to lots of magnification and, in spite of its faintness, is easily visible even under urban skies. The high surface brightness helps. I've found it a lot easier to locate in my ST80, probably because it has such a wide field of view - I could never find it in my old reflector.

DD

[Swedeman2013]

Starting off with a small 4" reflector scope it seems I has FAR more success finding objects in the night sky than with my 8" dob, perhaps that was due to easier winter targets?!. The hunt continues though and so far lunar views are awesome .

[Demonperformer]

A given eyepiece in your 4" scope would probably have given you a much wider field of view, (if the f number is the same it would have given you 4x the area) making it easier to find things.

[Swedeman2013]

Finding out astronomy is quite like golf , it wouldn't be as enjoyable if it was so easy, patience and knowledge are needed.

[Scooot]

Finding out astronomy is quite like golf , it wouldn't be as enjoyable if it was so easy, patience and knowledge are needed.

Mote stars in astronomy

[AlexB67]

Starting off with a small 4" reflector scope it seems I has FAR more success finding objects in the night sky than with my 8" dob, perhaps that was due to easier winter targets?!. The hunt continues though and so far lunar views are awesome .

Just in case you have not seen it before it is worth pointing out that M57 is a very small target, so it is easy to miss. In my scope with the 25mm, giving me 26x it is barley noticeable at all, but it is easy to find ( in my scope anyway ) , because all I need do is find sulafat and sheliak with the Ret dot finder, they both fit in the field of view of the 25mm anyway, and the ring is right in between, so I centre somewhere in the middle, put in the high mag and that's it.

I can imagine not having a red dot finder, or telrad and without wide angle eyepieces in a more powerful scope such as yours it could be tricky. Not sure how people can use the other types of finder on a DOB like the 8x50, I'd be wondering where to point the scope, it would take some getting used to, though doable with practice, otherwise they would not be fitting such a finder to a scope I imagine.

[Superdavo]

I recently had my first chance to use my new 200p on the ring. I'd already seen it with my 150, but in the 200, with a 32mm eyepiece, it was pretty clear to me that it wasnt a star, but it was still very small. When I ramped up the zoom with my 10mm, it showed up nicely as a bright ring, though the ring shape wasn't particularly obvious. When I used my UHC filter on it, the ring shape was very obvious. I think the problem is that you aren't looking in the exact location, the general area is rarely good enough to cath the object. (Though I have found Messier 38 several times by randomly scanning through the centre of Auriga)

David

[Swedeman2013]

Alex you touched on something very obvious to me with my dob, the 8 x 50 right angle finder is giving me fits. I sometimes have trouble pointing at the moon or Saturn and perhaps it's time to get a red dot finder for more precision.

[cotterless45]

Telrad.

[doctortim]

I have a 200p and it took me about 4 hours over several nights to find it although I am a beginner.

It's clearly not a star but for me in my garden (with a streetlight on the corner) it's pretty faint, just a smokey grey ring. I'd suggest using the 25mm eyepiece to locate it before switching to the 10mm (assuming you only have the standard eps).

I found I needed to use averted vision most nights although it showed up much more clearly when I was moving the scope around compared with when it was still.

Now I know what I'm looking for I can find it in a minute or so.

Tricky objects just add to the sense of achievement, boy was I chuffed when I first saw it!

[Astro Imp]

Tricky objects just add to the sense of achievement, boy was I chuffed when I first saw it!

It's a great feeling, wouldn't be half the fun if it was easy.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I first stumbled upon it using my Heritage 130P and a LPF, as i was pointing the scope in a direction that has an orange coloured light. It was so small in my FOV but it was perfectly formed and stunning. I was using an 8mm Vixen NPL because they offer great contrast. I really wasnt searching for it but i was thrilled when i came upon it. I have yet to view it with my 8se.

[Swedeman2013]

Eureka ! Found it this morning, took about 45 min. Skysafari sure helped out along with all your tips, folks. Fantastic to find all these amazing targets, love this hobby!

[Rob63]

I think part of the difficulty in seeing objects as a beginner is that you are used to seeing Hubble images and top quality astrophotography.

Even though you know you are not going to see things the same way through a telescope your brain still knows what it "should look like" because you have seen the photos.

Once you get some experience in how things really look it's much easier to spot them.

M57 is a beautiful sight and pretty easy to see - It took me several attempts to actually 'see' the veil nebula even though I was looking straight at it.

[DeepThought]

I think part of the difficulty in seeing objects as a beginner is that you are used to seeing Hubble images and top quality astrophotography.

Even though you know you are not going to see things the same way through a telescope your brain still knows what it "should look like" because you have seen the photos.

Once you get some experience in how things really look it's much easier to spot them.

M57 is a beautiful sight and pretty easy to see - It took me several attempts to actually 'see' the veil nebula even though I was looking straight at it.

Agreed

When I'm looking for something for the first time I often search for other people's sketches of the object to give an indication what it'll look like.

Take M57 as an example, by looking at a sketch first I know to look for this:

Rather than this:

A good collection of sketches can be found here:

http://www.deepskywatch.com/deepsky-sketches.html

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Its amazing reading all the different ways people find M57, in terms of patterns and shapes around Vega.

I always look at it as in there is a rectangle of stars just coming off Vega, and M57 is inbetween the bottom 2 stars.

Its one my favorite objects for sure.

[tibbz2]

That's how I find it, just swing the telrad's sight between the two bottom stars in the constellation and then it's in my EP already, it's usually the first thing I go to most nights because it's one of the few things I can actually find easily!

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Same here. Its the first thing i slew the goto too as well to see if it actually knows where it is for a change, because i can see it straight away.

[emadmoussa]

[Swedeman2013]

As I've heard, ring nebula was tough to study directly due to its faint appearance, had to see it more slightly in peripheral view. Still pretty damn awesome, I suppose a l.p filter is needed one day ( another thing to add to the list!)

[cotterless45]

Yep lp filter would help, seeing M57 from a dark sky location is stunning. Worth finding somewhere away from the main stream,

Nick.