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Date: 25 Nov 2006 20:57:24
From: Joe S.
Subject: M57, Ring Nebula
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I live in an urban apartment complex with the usual "security" lights,
street lights, light spilling from neighbors' windows, and the general light
cone of a city of 200,000. As a result, my viewing is limited to bright
objects -- M31 is a very faint fuzzy in 10X50 binos. My scope is an XT-12
and my eyepieces are 26, 18, and 10mm Radians, 7mm Nagler, and 9, 6, and 4mm
UO orthos.
Vega and Epsilon Lyra were especially bright tonight so I tried starhopping
to M57 -- Ring Nebula -- and there it was!!!
Not exactly knock-your-eyes-out but there was a distinct round fuzzy spot at
83X with the 18mm. At 150X I could make out the hole in the center. Tried
214X but that was too much -- M57 faded into fuzz.
M31 is almost overhead and in a few minutes will peek out from behind a roof
line where scope and I will be waiting.
Small victories.
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Date: 25 Nov 2006 21:16:29
From: Matthew Ota
Subject: Re: M57, Ring Nebula
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I am also an urban astronomer.
I have to deal with ambient LP from the city of Gardena and the entire
LA basin. I turn off the floodlights in the apartment driveays, but I
still have two streetlights to endure.
I have found that I can see M57 much easier with a light pollution
filter. It really looks brighter, but at the expense of losing the
stars around it.
Rod Molise has a great book on urban astronomy that will help you get
the best out of your equipment.
Matthew Ota
Joe S. wrote:
> I live in an urban apartment complex with the usual "security" lights,
> street lights, light spilling from neighbors' windows, and the general light
> cone of a city of 200,000. As a result, my viewing is limited to bright
> objects -- M31 is a very faint fuzzy in 10X50 binos. My scope is an XT-12
> and my eyepieces are 26, 18, and 10mm Radians, 7mm Nagler, and 9, 6, and 4mm
> UO orthos.
>
> Vega and Epsilon Lyra were especially bright tonight so I tried starhopping
> to M57 -- Ring Nebula -- and there it was!!!
>
> Not exactly knock-your-eyes-out but there was a distinct round fuzzy spot at
> 83X with the 18mm. At 150X I could make out the hole in the center. Tried
> 214X but that was too much -- M57 faded into fuzz.
>
> M31 is almost overhead and in a few minutes will peek out from behind a roof
> line where scope and I will be waiting.
>
> Small victories.
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Date: 26 Nov 2006 02:27:31
From: Florian
Subject: Re: M57, Ring Nebula
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>Vega and Epsilon Lyra were especially bright tonight so I tried =
starhopping=20
>to M57 -- Ring Nebula -- and there it was!!!
Good for you!!! Glad you found it. It's not an easy object with light =
poluted skies.
.Florian
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Date: 26 Nov 2006 21:17:51
From: parsec
Subject: Re: M57, Ring Nebula
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On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:57:24 -0500, "Joe S." <anon@mous.net > wrote:
>I live in an urban apartment complex with the usual "security" lights,
>street lights, light spilling from neighbors' windows, and the general light
>cone of a city of 200,000. As a result, my viewing is limited to bright
>objects -- M31 is a very faint fuzzy in 10X50 binos. My scope is an XT-12
>and my eyepieces are 26, 18, and 10mm Radians, 7mm Nagler, and 9, 6, and 4mm
>UO orthos.
>
>Vega and Epsilon Lyra were especially bright tonight so I tried starhopping
>to M57 -- Ring Nebula -- and there it was!!!
>
>Not exactly knock-your-eyes-out but there was a distinct round fuzzy spot at
>83X with the 18mm. At 150X I could make out the hole in the center. Tried
>214X but that was too much -- M57 faded into fuzz.
>
>M31 is almost overhead and in a few minutes will peek out from behind a roof
>line where scope and I will be waiting.
>
>Small victories.
>
Sort of neat the first time you get it.
I found it a couple of nights ago with a 17.5 inch reflector.
I was worth the chilly weather....
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Date: 26 Nov 2006 19:34:27
From: Michael McCulloch
Subject: Re: M57, Ring Nebula
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On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:57:24 -0500, "Joe S." <anon@mous.net > wrote:
>I live in an urban apartment complex with the usual "security" lights,
>street lights, light spilling from neighbors' windows, and the general light
>cone of a city of 200,000. As a result, my viewing is limited to bright
>objects ...
Joe, I've invited you several times to get out of town and do so again
here. Our club was at Look Rock last night in fact under decent skies
away from city lights. Two places we observe are less than an hour
drive from where you live.
http://www.smokymtnastro.org
If you prefer the comforts, check out the TAO location which has a
heated classroom and restrooms. I've seen mag 5.7 skies in the
direction of Orion from TAO in the winter months.
---
Michael McCulloch
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Date: 26 Nov 2006 20:08:04
From: Joe S.
Subject: Re: M57, Ring Nebula
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"Michael McCulloch" <michaelm@nospam.invalid.net > wrote in message
news:n7ckm213u6m2osikll2fds9snl5meeveku@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:57:24 -0500, "Joe S." <anon@mous.net> wrote:
>
>>I live in an urban apartment complex with the usual "security" lights,
>>street lights, light spilling from neighbors' windows, and the general
>>light
>>cone of a city of 200,000. As a result, my viewing is limited to bright
>>objects ...
>
> Joe, I've invited you several times to get out of town and do so again
> here. Our club was at Look Rock last night in fact under decent skies
> away from city lights. Two places we observe are less than an hour
> drive from where you live.
>
> http://www.smokymtnastro.org
>
> If you prefer the comforts, check out the TAO location which has a
> heated classroom and restrooms. I've seen mag 5.7 skies in the
> direction of Orion from TAO in the winter months.
>
> ---
> Michael McCulloch
Mike --
Thanks for the invite -- maybe one of these days . . . when I observed M57
last night was the first time I have had the cover off my scope since the
Spring. I made one trip to Norris with the Knoxville Observers last Spring
and have not had the cover off my scope since then.
As you may recall, we moved to Knoxville after being wiped out in Hurricane
Katrina. My parents live here -- shortly after we came back to Knoxville,
my father had a stroke, lingered for a while and died late last year, so, we
were totally engaged with him and with clearing up things after his death.
Then, my wife had several health problems that eventually cleared up but
because of them I was limited in how much time I could be gone from home.
Just as we thought we were getting squared away, my mother was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer and we are now in the midst of dealing with that. I
am pretty much living at her place 24/7, cooking, cleaning, back and forth
to doc, dispensing meds, dealing with visitors, banks, insurance, etc. with
only an occasional break -- I am the only family member within several
hundred miles and it's all my responsibility to care for her. Don't know of
your experience with pancreatic cancer but it's not good -- just about
everything we wanted to do is now on hold indefinitely.
Again, thanks for the invite but for now . . .
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Date: 27 Nov 2006 09:13:11
From: Willie R. Meghar
Subject: Re: M57, Ring Nebula
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"Joe S." <anon@mous.net > wrote:
>I live in an urban apartment complex with the usual "security" lights,
>street lights, light spilling from neighbors' windows, and the general light
>cone of a city of 200,000. As a result, my viewing is limited to bright
>objects -- M31 is a very faint fuzzy in 10X50 binos. My scope is an XT-12
>and my eyepieces are 26, 18, and 10mm Radians, 7mm Nagler, and 9, 6, and 4mm
>UO orthos.
The moon is a good target for urban astronomers.
The following site my help to inspire interest:
http://www.mufor.org/tlp/lunar.html
>Vega and Epsilon Lyra were especially bright tonight so I tried starhopping
>to M57 -- Ring Nebula -- and there it was!!!
>
>Not exactly knock-your-eyes-out but there was a distinct round fuzzy spot at
>83X with the 18mm. At 150X I could make out the hole in the center. Tried
>214X but that was too much -- M57 faded into fuzz.
M57 was one of the first DSOs I observed in the late 1960s. It will
always be one of my favorites!
>M31 is almost overhead and in a few minutes will peek out from behind a roof
>line where scope and I will be waiting.
So . . . how was the view of M31?
>Small victories.
Any victory is better than no victory! I hope you and your scope make
it out a bit more often now. Life is too short to allow time to pass
without taking a few minutes, hours, etc. now and then for a few
selfish, personal pleasures.
Willie R. Meghar
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Date: 27 Nov 2006 13:08:09
From: Rick Evans
Subject: Re: M57, Ring Nebula
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"Joe S." <anon@mous.net > wrote in message
news:ekasb301035@news1.newsguy.com...
>I live in an urban apartment complex with the usual "security" lights,
>street lights, light spilling from neighbors' windows, and the general
>light cone of a city of 200,000. <snip> Vega and Epsilon Lyra were
>especially bright tonight so I tried starhopping to M57 -- Ring Nebula --
>and there it was!!!
<snip >
> M31 is almost overhead and in a few minutes will peek out from behind a
> roof line where scope and I will be waiting.
>
> Small victories.
Here are a couple of articles that might help you enlarge your list of
small victories.
The Joys of Urban Astronomy --Tony Flanders; Night Sky; Nov/Dec 2004;
54;
Urban Astronomy: Observing the Messier Objects from the City
Tony Flanders; Sky & Telescope (Archives);
Apr 2002; 32
--
Hilton Evans
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