#1
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The Ring Nebula
I have not had much luck with DSO's in my 8-inch Dob -- it's a combination
of light pollution all around me and my impatience at starhopping. Last night our club put on a public viewing for Mars -- had some good views of the planet and 150-plus folks showed up between 2030 and 2300. After the moon came up, lots of the folks wanted to see the moon -- so I showed them the moon through different magnifications. I also showed them Mizar -- one star to the naked eye but a nice double through the scope -- really amazed them. When the crowd disappeared, I thought, why not try a shot at the Ring -- Lyra was overhead, skies clear, we were in a dark spot. I found it almost immediately -- looked like a fuzzy white donut. I'm going back to the same dark spot tonight and see if I can find it again. Shawn Grant I ain't. -- ---- Joe S. |
#2
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The Ring Nebula
Joe S. wrote:
Shawn Grant I ain't. I can get behind that. Brian Tung The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/ Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/ The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/ My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt |
#3
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The Ring Nebula
Joe wrote:
and see if I can find it again. Hi Joe, Here's some practical advice. During daylight hours enlist a friend to hold a confectioners powdered sugar coated doughnut against a cooperating neighbor's exterior house wall which you painted flat black. This kindly neighbor should live between 300 and 400 feet from your scope and that newly painted black wall should be clearly in sight. Now, with your daylight adapted eyes, center that doughnut in any of those wonderful finder devices and peer through the eyepiece of your telescope. Look at the doughnut. Study it carefully. Take an afocal photo or two of it if you are so moved. Eat the doughnut. Then, when night falls, direct the telescope to the area between Beta Lyrae and Gamma Lyrae and slowly sweep the region until you see something that looks familiar. Voila!! Messier 57. I am, Starstuffed Author of "Identifying DSO's With Junk Food" |
#4
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The Ring Nebula
Great! Now you got me hungry for powdered donuts. Thanks.
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#5
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The Ring Nebula
On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 10:02:02 -0400, "Joe S."
wrote: I also showed them Mizar -- one star to the naked eye but a nice double through the scope -- "Chris L Peterson" wrote in message ... Alcor and Mizar form a visual double (the two stars are close together is space, also, but not a true double). Joe-- i'd like to expand on what Chris is saying. Mizar/Alcor form a naked eye visual double. once it's pointed out to them, most folks are amazed to see that next to the bright star in the middle of the big dipper's handle is another star. i've seen this from moderately light polluted areas, so give it a try. then, when viewed through a scope, Mizar is a multiple star system (where two stars, Mizar A and Mizar B can be seen close together and a third star, Alcor, can be seen quite a distance away). btw: the Mizar double star was the first telescopically discovered double star. clear, dark skies-- mark d. |
#6
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The Ring Nebula
You're welcome Homer ! :-)
"DaveMan" wrote in message ... Great! Now you got me hungry for powdered donuts. Thanks. |
#7
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The Ring Nebula
"Starstuffed" wrote in message k.net...
Joe wrote: and see if I can find it again. Hi Joe, Here's some practical advice. During daylight hours enlist a friend to hold a confectioners powdered sugar coated doughnut against a cooperating neighbor's exterior house wall which you painted flat black. snip ROTFLMAO -- Hilton Evans --------------------------------------------------------------- Lon -71° 04' 35.3" Lat +42° 11' 06.7" --------------------------------------------------------------- CCD Astroimaging http://home.earthlink.net/~hiltoneva...troimaging.htm --------------------------------------------------------------- ChemPen Chemical Structure Software http://www.chempensoftware.com |
#8
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The Ring Nebula
Starstuffed wrote:
[snip] Here's some practical advice. During daylight hours enlist a friend to hold a confectioners powdered sugar coated doughnut against a cooperating neighbor's exterior house wall which you painted flat black. This kindly neighbor should live between 300 and 400 feet from your scope and that newly painted black wall should be clearly in sight. Now, with your daylight adapted eyes, center that doughnut in any of those wonderful finder devices and peer through the eyepiece of your telescope. Look at the doughnut. Study it carefully. Take an afocal photo or two of it if you are so moved. Eat the doughnut. [snip] I am, Starstuffed Author of "Identifying DSO's With Junk Food" Starstuffed is obviously a patsy working for the powdered sugar industry! I've found that ANY kind of doughnut will do. In fact I used an old-fashion chocolate one to better simulate the relative brightness against the night sky. You can see my photo on the .binary group. I used RegiStax2 to combine 47 of 510 frames. Additional food processing was done by QuisinArt. Some call me... Coug P.S. Does anyone know the best way to clean those little candy donut sprinkles off of a primary? Doh! (Not affiliated with the food industry in any way, shape, or manner) |
#9
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The Ring Nebula
Joe, don't have to be a Shawn Grant....as you probably know,
M-57, probably the easiest of the Messiers to find, is almost exactly half-way between Beta and Gamma Lyrae, those two bright stars out on the end of the Parallelogram of Lyra. Clear Skies, Tom W. PS...easiest NGC (and galaxy) to find? Just put the star Beta Andromedae in the FOV and see what else there is there!! That's not a ghost image of the bright star! Remember, easiest to find, but not necessarily easiest to see. Joe S. wrote: dark spot tonight and see if I can find it again. Shawn Grant I ain't. |
#10
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The Ring Nebula
Phil Wheeler wrote:
Agree. Same result here with my NexStar 8GPS in a too well lit Los Angeles suburb. I've not tried it with anything smaller. M57 has a very high surface brightness (brightness per unit area, so to speak), and is visible in most scopes under most skies. The tough part is identifying it, if you don't use sufficiently high power. Once I knew where it was (and I mean *exactly* where it was), I could see it in 10x50 binoculars, from Santa Monica (limiting magnitude about 4.6). I hear the crummy skies in Santa Monica round about now are Steinberg's fault. Brian Tung The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/ Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/ The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/ My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt |
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