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Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -3.5, est. to be in Lyra)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: excellent
Time: Thu Sep 10 00:08:23 2009 UT Obs. no.: 1833
This evening I observered the Space Shuttle followed by the ISS go over my head. The ISS was the brighter of the two satellites but for about five seconds the Space Shuttle brightened to about -3.5 magnitude or brighter. That was a great sight and I'm glad I saw it.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Tom Greensmith (e-mail: tgreensmith28@hotmail.com)
Instrument: 10-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: London, Hertfordshire, England
Light pollution: severe Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Sep 22 22:20:00 2008 UT Obs. no.: 1799
Nice, on lowest power an obvious ring, looks like an unfocussed star, whacked in the 9mm eyepiece and it was hard to distinguish much detail in the inner portion of the ring, no colour really visible, but still impressive.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 10-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Sun Aug 12 06:10:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1695
Beautifully visible at 48x with a slight elongation along one of its axes. With averted vision I actually caught the parent star once in a while.
Other (Other, est. mag 5, est. to be in Lyra)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Wed May 30 13:30:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1661
This evening I observed the double double in Lyra with my 127mm MAK. I was able to split both componants of the double double at 123X with a little difficulty. Each of the individual stars showed itself clearly.
Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -1.8, est. to be in Lyra)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 19 23:03:39 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1603
This evening, just 58 Minutes after the Space Shuttle and ISS seperated, both componants came over my head in Southern Connecticut. With the naked eye, both objects were so close, I couldn't seperate them. But in my 10X50 binoculars, I was able to seperate them easily. The fainter Space Shuttle was just below the rear of the brighter ISS. It was like having a double star crossing the sky.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 16-inch equatorial reflector Location: New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Nov 3 01:30:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1578
This evening, my friends, Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I went to the Yale Observatory for a public viewing session. Since the moon was waxing gibbous, most our observing was the moon. However, we did observe the double star Alberio with the 8 inch refractor and the Ring Nebula with the 16 inch reflector. Alberio has the main componant which is a golden colored and a smaller componant which is blue colored. The contrast in the colors was great to see. To observe the Ring Nebula, we attached an OIII filter onto the scope's eyepiece. This helped bring structure to M57 and it showed the Ring Nebula as a soft bluegreen color. All in all, it was a fine evening.
M56 (Globular Cluster, in Lyra)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jun 14 03:11:30 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1541
Another night of turbulent atmosphere that turned Jupiter into mush made me decide to try and find something new to look at. The Cygnus region of the Galxy was rising in the East and was a pretty good way up above the horizon. I started with the Ring Nebula but the glow from that horizon pretty much drowned it out. working my way further east I spotted the globular cluster M56. At 30x it was very small (one of the smallest globulars I have seen) and was not too well resolved. It is rather distant at 33,ooo light years and has a visiual brightness of 8.3 magnitude, but with the conditions I was facing, light pollution, high level wispy clouds ect...it was probably just withing my scopes range. It is also rather small at 8.8 arcminutes diameter. I had mixed feelings about it. DIsappointment at it's lack lusterness yet proud that I found it in such lousy conditions. I will view again later on this year when it is higher in the sky.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Vedran Vrhovac (e-mail: vedran_vrhovac@yahoo.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Velika Gorica, Croatia
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Mon Jul 25 22:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1270
I tried to find M57 with 3" scope and I failed. In 8" it was bright and larger than i thought at 38x. At 133x it looked like eye with brighter edge.
Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -8, est. to be in Lyra)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Wed Jun 15 02:09:37 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1248
Last night, my friends Joe Cseh, Mike Dzubaty and I observed the brightest irridium flare we've ever seen. Its magnitude was -8 and it actually caused some minor discomfort to our eyes. I've seen many irridium flares, but none of them were ever this bright.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag 3.0, est. to be in Lyra)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Apr 22 03:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1221
Last evening, my friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I observed the Lyrid meteor shower for about two hours. Because of a bright moon, we were able to see only ten meteors. All of the meteors were faint and fast moving. Only one of the meteors was fairly bright.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.astroclubul.org/emilneata)
Instrument: 60-mm refractor Location: Craiova, Romania
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Jan 25 00:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1169
M 57 is very difficult with a 60mm refractor. At 36x it is easily mistook for a star. The central hole is visible only with averted vision, very difficult.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Nov 10 00:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1090
This night was very crisp and cold. Thanks to Daylight Savings ending, it was extremely dark by 6:30 PM. There was little wind and the seeing was just about as good as I have seen it. After allowing 30 minutes or so for the scope to cool down, I viewed M57. The Ring was beautiful! On previous observations, I could not use power beyond 75x due to either wind or seeing conditions. Tonight's viewing held steady at over 200x! The view was the best I had ever seen of the Ring. The hollow center was not only easily visible w/ direct vision...it was also very large. The elliptical shape was even easier to spot tonight than other nights when viewing with 75x. A truly wonderous sight that I will return to again and again.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra, Est. RaDec zenith)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Oct 6 02:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1069
Tried to recap yesterday's excellent viewing oppurtunity tonight. Unfortunately, there was severe light pollution, zodiac perhaps. Spotted the nebula once again at 30x. Afterwards I switched to 75x and once again made out the shell and hollow center. There was considerable wind tonight, and it was alittle difficult to keep the image "jitter free" for more than 4 seconds at a time. I tried employing my 2-3x Barlow with the 25mm eyepiece (30x). Adjusting the Barlow to 3x for a total of 90x, the image lost structure to the light pollution as well as the bouncing from the wind. Went back to 75x and viewed for about 5 minutes before packing it in, Also viewed M31 (see M31 observations). Rather dissapointed tonight with the conditions, but so far I have had a couple of excellent days this week.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Tue Oct 5 02:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1068
Tonight's viewing was even better than last night's. The sky was exceptionally clear and there was little, if any, atmospheric turbulance. I was viewing straight up towards the zenith. My target was M13 in Hercules and M57 in Lyra. Hercules was found in a matter of minutes. At 30x it was about dime-sized in my eyepiece. I could make out a few more stars tonight than I did the previous weeks. Looking around the eyepiece I could actually pick up a few, if ever so dim, stars on the outskirts of the cluster. After seeing as many individual stars as I could I moved on to M57 in Lyra. The view of M57 was magnificent! Spotting it at 30x, the small circular ring appeared unusually bright. However it was hard picking out the hollow middle at this magnification. Changing my eyepiece to my 20mm was also not allowing me enough power to make out the nebula. Again, I changed to my 10mm (75x) eyepiece. The view was perfect! Appearing as a smoke ring about dime-sized, I could clearly see the hollow middle. I could even make out that it was ever so slightly elongated. I tried my 3.7mm eyepiece but all detail was completely lost as a very faint smudge. I went back to the 10mm and marveled at the sight for another 15 minutes. It was one of the few objects I have seen (besides planets and the Orion nebula) that actually looked alot like what is shown in magazines. All that was missing was the parent star (a 15" scope is needed to see that). Truly a beautiful object that I will visit again (when it's alittle further from the zenith)
NGC6702 (Galaxy, in Lyra)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Parnon mountain, Greece
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Jul 17 00:07:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1044
NGC6702 and 6703 is a pair of faint galaxies in Lyra.At 91x both faint at the same field.NGC6703 a little brightr though.Nice objects well off the beaten track in Lyra!
NGC6791 (Open Cluster, in Lyra)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Parnon mountain, Greece
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Jul 16 19:20:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1039
A rich and very ancient open cluster in Lyra.Visible like a faint nebula at 28x(32mm erfle).
NGC6791 (Open Cluster, in Lyra)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Parnon mountain, Greece
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jun 19 22:30:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1026
Large and faint open cluster in Lyra.Looked like a faint nebula at 45x(20mm plossl).Its a VERY old open cluster.Older than NGC188 in Cepheus.Its an overlooked object, in the shadow of M57 and M56,the two well known Lyra higlights...Discovered during the 19th century by the famous comet observer Winnecke.
Alpha Lyr (Vega) (Star, in Lyra)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in)
Instrument: 50-mm refractor Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun Apr 25 05:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1206
this metallic blue-white(though an A-class main sequence star),fifth brightest star is one of my favourite and so is it's constellation.
Other (Other, est. mag 15.0, est. to be in Lyra, Est. RaDec 18h53.3m, +33d04')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 30-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Cherry Springs State Park, Potter County, Pennsylvania, USA
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Thu Aug 28 02:10:00 2003 UT Obs. no.: 877
IC 1296 is approximately 4' NW of M57. This 1.3' sized spiral galaxy was quite faint even with 30 inches of aperture. I was unable to see it the next night using a 14.5" Starmaster. IC 1296 lies within a diamond of field stars and is displayed rather nicely at http://www.highenergyastro.com/m57.html and http://user.mc.net/arf/m57.htm
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Sun Sep 22 04:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 700
This was my very first observation with my new telescope!! Being I was in my light polluted back yard, I didn't know what to expect. Put it this way, I wasn't disappointed. Obviously, this object stands up to light pollution very well. At 59x, the ring was very sharp and the center was obvious. At 118x, M57 showed detail in the texture of the ring, and was my favorite magnification. The central area was so well defined, I tried averted vision for about 20 minutes hoping to see the central star.(no luck) I later learned that a much higher power is necessary to glimpse the allusive star along with much darker skies. Happy viewing!! Paul
M56 (Globular Cluster, in Lyra, Est. RaDec 19h17m +30)
Observer: Thomas Godfrey (e-mail: choccy_bourbon@hotmail.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars Location: Norwich, Norfolk, England
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Sep 20 23:20:00 2001 UT Obs. no.: 570
With 10x50 binoculars from a suburban location, M56 wasn't easy. Once found it appears as a small fuzzy spot mid-way between Alberio and gamma Lyrae
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra, Est. RaDec 18h52m +33)
Observer: Thomas Godfrey (e-mail: choccy_bourbon@hotmail.com)
Instrument: 18-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Norwich, Norfolk, England
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun Sep 16 23:05:00 2001 UT Obs. no.: 569
With a magnification of x200 the Ring was very bright and obvious. The ends of the long axis were fainter than the rest of the perimeter and the central hole was not completely black. The central star was visible and it was the first time i had ever seen it!
Epsilon Lyr (Multiple Star, in Lyra)
Observer: Dr. Winfried Melder (e-mail: wmelder@atos-group.com)
Instrument: 114-mm equatorial reflector Location: Aachen, Germany
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 16 19:45:00 2000 UT Obs. no.: 539
As I was in testing of my new telescope (a VIXEN R114S newtonian on a GreatPolaris mount), I tried to get eps Lyr, the double double, which I wasn't able to split into 4 by maens of my older 76mm Newtonian. I just looked out to reach Wega, which was quite near the zenith (hard to look through the pointing glass). Even in the 6x30 searcher-scope eps Lyr was split into 2, well known from history(who ever wonders about this?). Then I tried to go for a 26mm PL eyepiece (x34) nothing happens. Then I tried 18mm ortho(x50 respectivly) nothing... bad luck ... ? not a good buy ??. Then I tried the last a 9mm ortho (x100) eyepiece and there it was. Great the better one was epsilon 2 Lyra which has almost the same mag but only 2,3" separation. The other one was a little harder, but to confirm my observation I could see that the directions of the doubles have a difference of about 90°. I think I should look out for a 5mm eyepice to hence 180x for best conditions.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra, Est. RaDec 18h 54' 33d 01')
Observer: Robin Yost (e-mail: robin.yost@att.net)
Instrument: 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector Location: canto , north carolina, usa
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sun Jul 2 06:10:00 2000 UT Obs. no.: 533
This was a first observation with my new celestron 8" Next Star . Useing a 40mm Plossl aprox 50x .It showed no color of course but the ring was perfectly circular with occasional tiny hole in the center.Solid looking and no problems with turbulence much. Useing barlow image was just about as sharp and well defined occasionally the center star would make a quick and distinct flash.The optics in this scope were somewhat better than I had anticipated.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Sean Wilkins (e-mail: spw7000@usa.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch equatorial reflector Location: Elyria, Ohio, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Jun 19 21:43:24 1999 UT Obs. no.: 494
I was out last night and looked at Lyra.I thought M57!It was almost Reddish-Blue.Could almost accumulate the central star.
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