What would M57 look like at 40x to 213x?

I'm trying to learn how to star hop and I keep getting confused. I use a Vixen 140 Na refractor w/ GM8 on my deck, about 30' from a street light that lights the alley behind my house. I block what light I can with an umbrella for the table on my deck. I have trees and houses around so I have only southwest to west and the northeast areas to look for objects. Now that Jupiter has bowed out I'm searching for messier objects. For some reason I get confused when trying to star hop, going from binocs to telescope. Anyway, I went from Vega to I believe was M57 - a little red speck at 40x. I changed eyepieces to a 7.5mm plossl w/ 2x barlow for 213x and it still looked like a little speck - with less light. I live downtown in mid-size city (green bay) and there is plenty of light pollution. However, I assume it's small because it's only 140mm of aperature. I never should have sold my 10" LX50. Can anybody recommend some easier clusters or whatever that could be found easier (other than m44, 42,45)? I'm going to take on M13 tomorrow - seeing permitting. Sorry for long post, just getting a little frustrated. I must add though, how much I love watching various comets or whatever go whizzing by at 20x. Cheers and I do appreciate any advice. Don

That was not m57 that you where looking at. M57 regardless of your scope aperture(and 140mm is plenty to see m57 really well) will look as a somewhat round to football shape(if you are a more experienced observer it is clearly not a circle) at anything over 100x. Keep on trying. If you are trying to guess your way from Vega that’s kind of far. Look at a star atlas and you should notice that it is between two ~3.5 mag stars. You should be able to see them naked eye unless you are observing from downtown San Francisco on a foggy night. M57 is almost exactly in the center of these two stars. First try to spot it with just the 7.5mm without the barlow. Good luck and please let us know if you have look finding it.

The constellation Lyra which contains M57 is shaped like a triangle attached to one corner of a parallelogram. Using your eyepiece that gives you 40x, center your finder between the 2 stars forming the short side of the parallelogram farthest from the triangle (the bright star Vega forms one point of the triangle). This will be the southern side of the parallelogram.

M57 will now be somewhere within your field of view, not right at the center but probably 1/2 way to the edge. It looks like a little grey smoke ring, 2-3 times the diameter of Jupiter right now. Once you've found it, bump up the magnification to see it better.

140mm is plenty to see M57 unless your sky is completely washed out with skyglow. I've seen it from my suburban backyard in a 60mm Celestron refractor.

Jeff