Where is the Ring Nebula?

[shemy]

Hi my name is shem and im nine can you tell me if the ring nebula is north,east,south or west.

thanks:hello2:

[rawhead]

Hi my name is shem and im nine can you tell me if the ring nebula is north,east,south or west.

thanks:hello2:

Hi Shem

at 11pm tonight, pretty much overhead. slightly to the south...

if you have another question, start a new thread in the beginners section

cheers

Jon

[shemy]

thank you:hello2:

[irishbloke]

Hi shemy,

If you have access of to a PC (doh you are posting on internet!) you could download stellarium for free which will show you where any planet, star or object is in the sky at night. Objects move through the night and year so they won't be in same place next month! With this program you put in your longitude at lat and date and time and you'll see where things are out your back! I took my laptop out the back with me for the first while to get my bearings.

Here's the link: Stellarium

Brian

[Tim]

The way I find it is like this.

Find Vega, the huge bright blue star which is pretty much overhead at around 11pm.

Just underneath that star you will see there is a quadrangle of stars which make up the constellation Lyra. The bottom two stars hold the key.

If you draw a mental line between the two of them, the Ring Nebula is to be found approximately mid way between them, and should look like a grey fuzzy blob at low mag.

Cheers

TJ

[ottUp]

Hi my name is shem and im nine can you tell me if the ring nebula is north,east,south or west.

thanks:hello2:

Here are some instructions on how to find it. Good luck!

- Richard

[TheThing]

Hi shem and welcome.

All excellent advice here (as usual). We'd be interested to hear how you get on with finding it though.

Good hunting!

[MikeP]

If you are looking for it using binoculars, you'll be lucky to find it and if you do, it will be very small and dim.

Mike