Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, July 8th.  Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 9:28.  The moon is new today, and won’t be visible.  |  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:06.

The constellation of Lyra is high in the east when it gets dark tonight.  Its bright star Vega and the thin parallelogram of stars depict the harp it represents.  Between the two stars at the bottom of the parallelogram opposite Vega hides a celestial wonder that can be seen in a small telescope, though the larger the telescope the better.  It is the Ring Nebula, a smoke ring blown by a dying star.  The telescope’s finder cannot show the ring.  Center the finder between those two stars.  The nebula will appear as a small dim gray spot in the telescope.  Closer inspection may reveal that the center of the nebula is darker than the edges.  It is about 2,300 light years away, but that’s a very approximate distance, which could be a thousand light years off.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The constellation Lyra with the location of the Ring Nebula shown. Created using Stellarium.

A closer look at the location of the Ring Nebula. Created using Stellarium.