Polaris and the Ring Nebula

This evening I mounted the 80ED refractor on a Paragon-Plus XHD tripod. Attaching the 2" diagonal and 19mm eyepiece result in a tail-heavy combination that is too much out of balance for comfortable use. I need to get a tripod mounting block for use with mounting rings so I can balance it properly.

I pointed the telescope towards Polaris and had no trouble splitting this binary at 31x. Later I also observed the Ring Nebula M57. It was not difficult to find, even though I had not mounted the Rigel QuikFinder. At 31x it was not more than a tiny smudge from my light-polluted patio. Adding a UHC filter improved the contrast somewhat.