A head's-up for those of you in North America who expect clear skies tonight, Sunday, May 7: When Lyra rises tonight, the Ring Nebula (M57) and Fragment C of Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will apparently be near enough to each other to fit within the same field of view of a low- to medium power eyepiece. Starry Night Pro tells me that the two will be well within the same 98-arcminute field of view of the 15 mm Panoptic eyepiece in my 80 mm f 7.5 refractor, and that the comet's visual magnitude will be 6.9. The meeting place of these objects is just east of Beta Lyrae ("Sheliak"). Clear skies to all of you.
NexStar 8i SCT, Orion 80ED APO refractor, Orion 120 mm EQ refractor, 3.5-inch Questar
