Re: The experience...
Jake, M57 is usually very hard to spot with even a telescope. It's between gamma and beta lyrae which are easy to find.
Well, my interest in astronomy dates back to the pre-NTT era and long before the HST pictures.
Besides, the fun is to be able to see the universe through all those different telescopes (their pictures or directly through the eyepieces or through a webcam or CCD (with a laptop). Many different experiences.
Raoul