2025-08-19

• Condition: VG6
• Quality: 20.03 mpsas
• Location: Home, Spearfish: 44.49, -103.87

Pretty good conditions tonight. A bit of high wind which helps fight off the mosquitoes too. I decided to take a break from Open Clusters and spend a longer time observing a favorite.

10:00PM

• Target: M 57, Ring Nebula
• Const: Lyra
• RaDec: 18h53m +33.2
• Type: Planetary Nebula
• Scope: AT102ED
• Setting: 165x

The last observation was on [[2024-09-06]], with no sketch made.

It seems that every time I view M 57, I think to myself “it can’t possibly be that bright”. The Ultrablock filter did help it pop, but I decided to remove the filter because it was already bright enough and the surrounding star field lost some definition. AV was not necessary at all, but it did help accentuate the edges around the ring, sometimes forming thin and sharp wisps of texture.