M57--- hard to find

[prabal276]

Hello to the whole SGL community.

My summer vacations are going on and i have been staying up almost whole of the night with my telescope(60 mm refractor-celestron), planisphere, sky charts. Almost everyday  i try to find the ring nebula (M57).  My city New Delhi is highly light polluted so i have to find a place where there are no light after finding such a place, i start my session of observing. light pollution as it is finds a way to the observing location.  . I can spot vega in lyra through my eyes but no other star of the constellation. so i try to find the other stars in my telescope. After spotting beta lyra and alpha lyra (the southernmost stars of the constellation)(one of them is binary i think?) i go halfway between the both stars to see the ring nebula . but it is int there. I even cannot see the nebula using the highest power eyepiece. 

Please help me . Is any special filter or barlow or something required or am i making some mistake?          

[ChrisLX200]

An OIII filter will help make the nebula stand out visually. The object is quite small and can often be mistaken for a star, whilst at the high power necessary to obtain a good view and obsever its structure it then becomes more difficult to capture in the FOV. Star-hopping from a recognised star is probably the best way of tracking it down.

ChrisH

[prabal276]

 thank you Chris lx200

[prabal276]

IS there any other way than buying this filter because its very expensive

[AndyWB]

Hi ya,

Yeah, you may be looking in the wrong place, I suspect (Or you've a mistake in your description - I suspect the latter). 

- Vega is Alpha Lyrae

- You want too look between Beta and Gamma Lyrae. See: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Lyra_IAU.svg/500px-Lyra_IAU.svg.png

Also, make sure you're not looking at Delta and Zeta - they make a similar line. Been there, done that.

It is pretty small at low magnification - it's easy to mistake for a slightly out of focus star. It is off to one side of that line, so try to find at a lower magnification first, then increase the magnification.

I don't think you need a filter. I can see it through the fairly major light pollution I live in without too much trouble. It's harder to find - as you say, you can't see the guide stars easily - but M57 seems to cut through light pollution pretty well.

[AlexB67]

Hi welcome.

It may be the case your light is sufficiently bad still where you travel to ?  I think if you can see what is called the summer triangle and a few more star naked eye there is a chance, but if you are struggling with those three brightest as the only naked eye stars appearing very faint you may have to travel  bit more ?   

I notice the telecope has 60mm aperture which under a good sky you should see the target without problem, but I am aware of how bad your skies are there and the high levels of smog that affect New Delhi and surrounding area, the scope may not have enough aperture to cut through the bad skies is a possiblity.

[tyco]

An Olll filter would be a waste of money for you,as this filter is best used with a Telescope of 150 mm or more. Your 60 mm Telescope will not collect enough light for the filter to work.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

A 60mm can pick it up, but it will look stellar at low magnification. Moving to a dark location, and using reasonable magnification will help

[Astro Imp]

Moonshane has written a very informative piece on star hopping and one of the objects he singles out is M57, you may find it a useful read. 

Choose Locating Objects in the Night Sky in this post:- http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/197640-collimation-and-star-hopping/

HTH and good luck.

[Davey-T]

Not the accepted way of star hopping to it but using my big bin's I found it easier starting from Albireo and going  straight up until I came to more bright stars then sweeping slowly back and forth, this way if you are not that familiar with the sky you can't really mistake Albireo so you know you're in the right place.

Dave 

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Prabal276 and a very warm welcome to the SGL Community, You say your using a 60mm Refractor, but if you are using a straight through finder scope to star hop, you may need to check which way the finder is orientated against a star atlas - if your using one.  The star atlas will give you a correct view of the sky with the correct orientation - but if the finder scope your using is a straight through type (similar to the larger main scope) will give you an "Upside down" image of the sky - so where you are looking - you may need to "turn" the view in the finder scope - you may be in the correct place for M57 - or it may be on the opposite "side" (giving you an upside down image in the finder) when you have finished star - hopping - Hope this helps you as not to confuse you.

Regards.   Paul.

[wookie1965]

I find it by looking for Vega which is very easy to find look under that for the two sets of stars that look like a kite i aim in the middle of the bottom two stars.This page shows you 

http://www.telescopes.com/findringnebula_lp.cfm

[LukeSkywatcher]

A 60mm can pick it up, but it will look stellar at low magnification. Moving to a dark location, and using reasonable magnification will help

I'm thinking you will struggle to see it with a 60mm scope. I saw it with a 130mm scope and it was tiny. You will most likely need a very dark sky and throw a good bit of magnification at it to see it.

[John]

I'm thinking you will struggle to see it with a 60mm scope. I saw it with a 130mm scope and it was tiny. You will most likely need a very dark sky and throw a good bit of magnification at it to see it.

I've viewed M57 with a 60mm scope but it's very small and very easy to overlook at that aperture if you don't know what you are looking for and just where to look. At low powers it resembles a slightly bloated star. At higher power (say 50x or more) it looks like a tiny disk of slightly translucent light. The ring structure is really not very apparent at all with 60mm of aperture.

[prabal276]

OK, yesterday i think i saw a faint blob which i though was a unfocused star. it was a bit smudgy. nothing near the ring nebula.

       

[messiermark]

Hello depending on which direction you were looking in relation to Vega it could be M13 M92 or M56 all globular clusters and will look like faint smudgy stars in a 60mm telescope

Mark

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

OK, yesterday i think i saw a faint blob which i though was a unfocused star. it was a bit smudgy. nothing near the ring nebula.

       

An unfocused star is what it would appear like (it does so in my 70mm finder). The distinctive ring shape requires more magnification. You should not expect the colourful images you see in magazines, most deep sky objects appear as grey smudges. For a smudge with a bit more detail you might try M27 (use low magnification), although you may struggle with your level of light pollution. An LPR filter like the SkyWatcher one or the Baader Neodymium might help a bit.

[prabal276]

thank you all for your suggetions

 

Prabal

[brantuk]

I found it by drawing an imaginary line between Vega and Albireo. From Albireo move 2/3rds of the way towards Vega then scan under the line (but staying within Lyra). I used 125x magnification and it was on a clear night with good transparency from a very dark site - you may need to get out of the city. Hope that helps.

[damnut]

Hi There,

All good advice above, but with your scope and light pollution it will be a challenge! some extra info here :-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Nebula

Good Luck with the hunt. Stellarium very useful in helping to track down these obljects.

[barkis]

This may help.

Ron.