The Mystery of M57

During Sagittarius Star Party held in Oland, southern Sweden, some finnish amateurs noticed - for the first time in the world - a starlike dot inside M57's ring. The night after discovery it still was there and remained unmoved. So the chances were the object was really inside the ring.

Next couple of years the dot was insistently in its location and looked exactly the same. You can try to see this feature yourself by using telescope of any size and high magnification. Try using averted vision and try to spot a stellar pinpoint jumping on and off. If you manage to do this you've succeeded. Make your observation during good seeing.

Below is photo taken by Arto Oksanen using 2.5 meter telescope at NOT-observatory Canary Islands. Photo is taken using extremely short exposure so that inner details are not overexposed. You can use this photo as finder chart in your quest to see this extremely difficult object. The object is located in the middle of left side of the ring.