=================================================== RAW's Astro Report, Vol. 2, No. 1, 8 May 2000 =================================================== 0. Location and conditions 31 April 2000 West Concord, MA, USA [~ 42N, 71W] 1. The occasion My parents were in for a flash visit and I wanted them to see the 'scope in action. Sadly, I didn't give them much of a show. :-( 2. Spring/Summer sky: Vega and friends Uh...who moved the stars, eh? :-) It seems things up there have shifted quite a bit since December. It took me a few minutes to get oriented. (Well, of course, I was clear on where *Polaris* is, but everything in the southern sky was different.) No planets visible in the early p of m. No Orion---see ya in the fall. The only thing I could latch onto quickly in a somewhat light-polluted easterly direction was Lyra, anchored by the star Vega. One of the first more-than-just-a-star objects I became aware of in the sky, some five-plus years ago now, is the double star Epsilon Lyrae, which, with Vega and Zeta Lyrae, form what appears to be an equilateral triangle. On a clear, unlit night I can *just* make out the double star by eyesight. With binos it is quite clear. So, I pointed the scope at it and got a crystal-clear look. At these mags I couldn't split either double---yes, this is, in fact, a *double* double---but the main split was wide. 3. M57 (Ring Nebula) Since I was in Lyra, I went for the very well-known Messier object there: M57, the Ring Nebula. New Hubble images of this have been quite popular recently. After quite a bit of hunting I finally found the blur, but I was *barely* able to find it in the Barlow (thanks, still, Gerry!), but, sadly, the combination of my viewing position, the scope, and the house meant I was staring at lights in the house while trying to look into the eyepiece. I never got anything more than a blur out of it. Finding Lyra in the summer is very easy, so hopefully I'll get a chance to look at M57 again this summer from out on the Cape. =================================================== RAW's Astro Report, Vol. 2, No. 1, 8 May 2000 ===================================================