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finding...something


oldnut

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evening all, have a problem, cant seem to find anything. when I got my scope back in june very shortly after I saw Saturn. seen it again and the moon.....that's it! been trying to look at andromeda but its just a very tiny smudge (pretty sure it was that) also tried for the heart and soul...nothing. please could someone point me at the easiest galaxy/nebula to find  I am using an 8"sw....back garden a little less than blackpool illuminations... nothing too low, trees at north, house south, more trees west

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Heart and Soul needs a dark sky in my experience.

Give the Double Cluster a go, not a galaxy or nebula but a good starter.

M13 is another reasonably bright one although not brilliantly positioned.

M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra is good too, though needs plenty of magnification.

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Loads of stuff 'up' there but I know what you mean - I was the Dame until I finally got to start learning the upstairs inventory and constellations!

Try....just for starters:

M13 Great Cluster in Hercules

Albireo (lovely double star) in Cygnus

Pleiades - beautiful grouping up from Aldebaran

M57 the Ring Planetary Nebula in Lyra

Need a good, nay great guide? Google 'Turn Left At Orion' - is kind of a given around here!

Good luck and enjoy the search - maybe start off with a wider eyepiece, then zero in with higher mag.

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Those are tough targets and will show up much better under dark skies. If you saw a smudge you were probably seeing the bright core of Andromeda. They are also huge and are unlikely to fit in your eyepiece - here's an image of the Heart & Soul I took recently, for reference each component of the Double Cluster on the right has the same apparent size as the Full Moon.

As Mak says, open and globular clusters will be good targets for you. Good luck.

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Galaxies the next "bright" one is M33, not far from M31 and you should get it all in view - m31 is too big.

After that it is M81 Bodes Galaxy, M101 Pinwheel, M82 Cigar galaxy. You are going to need the sky to be as dark as possible for best results.

Nebulas seem to be Orion or somewhere in Sagittarius.

How about planetary nebulas?

M57 Ring Neb, M27 Dumbbell Neb. Suppose M1 Crab is worth a shot at but it is small.

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