M57 First sighting.

[Shaun_B]

Evening all,

After a looong day at work yesterday and finishing quite late around 22:00 I noticed how clear the sky was so legged it home as quick as I could thinking I could sneak a quick hour observing in.  I set my telescope up outside in the garden which was surprisingly dark (it's normally quite light) let it cool for around 30 mins and got going.  Anyhow I took a chance at M57, I say chance as I've got a Meade 90 ETX which I know isn't great for DSO's and I used it free hand not autostar and there it was or what I think it was.  It was very small sort of gray/green in colour like a smudged circle.  I was really chuffed after having a rubbish day at work.  

I was using a cheap 3x Barlow with a 26mm plossl ep.  Pretty sure I could see it without the barlow as well.  I think few extra inches of aperture may be on the cards in the near future 

[RLWP]

Nice one!

Richard

[SteveB72]

M57 is one of my favourite objects it looks almost 3D in my Dob.

[swamp thing]

Nice one Shaun. Seeing colour in DSO's is always an unexpected bonus. 

Clear skies buddy

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice report. BTW, people often say a slow scope isn't good for DSOs. They are wrong. An F/10 scope with a 20mm EP shows exactly the same as an F/5 scope with a 10mm EP, assuming the aperture is the same. I have seen over 500 galaxies, most of which were spotted with my 8" F/10 SCT. Imaging is another matter, but for visual, the only thing slow scopes cannot cope with well are a handful of very wide field objects

[swamp thing]

Good point Michael, and one that I agree with completely. Slower scopes make very profitable deep sky scopes indeed. The compactness of SCT make them ideal for dark sky sorties, and as we all know, Dark skies rule.

[Pleiades M45]

How light polluted are your skies?

[estwing]

great spot....you will be trying to see the central star next!http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/152823-m57-central-star/?hl=m57

[LukeSkywatcher]

M57 is a real little gem. Congrats on spotting it in the 90mm with a 26mm+3x barlow. Thats quite a high magnification to go searching for M57 with. Your hunting skills must be well tuned. Unless of course you stumbled upon it by accident like i did. 

[Shaun_B]

Thanks guys,

Paul, I tried a couple of times previously using the autostar but I can't seem to get it set up good enough.  I had a good enough idea where it was and with a bit of google skymaps and fine hand movement I got it, I agree with the high magnification as it was only in view for a couple of seconds.

Pleiades 45 I live in a large town with a flood lit football pitch right by me so it's not great. Luckily this time no neighbours lights or flood lights were on and not a single cloud in the sky.

estwing, reading that thread I think I'm gonna need something a little bigger than 3 inches lol