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.

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

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"

Great! Now you got me hungry for powdered donuts. Thanks.

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.

You're welcome Homer ! :-)

"DaveMan" wrote in message
...
Great! Now you got me hungry for powdered donuts. Thanks.

"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

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)

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.

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