Is looking for M31 fruitless for me?

[pipnina]

I live in South Devon, england. The image here is a view from the top of my house taken at 200 ISO with a 15 second exposure time (F.3.5) Facing almost exactly North.

http://i.imgur.com/XB1MuGM.jpg

Will this level of LP stop me from seing andromeda entirely?

(P.s my camera is dying, it sometimes doesn't save images and just says it's processing for half a minute then gives up and turns off. In addtion, it has awful dynamic range)

[Owmuchonomy]

Forget your camera. Can you see the 7 major stars of Ursa Minor ( that includes the pole star) with your eyes when they have dark adjusted? If so, you stand a chance.

[pipnina]

Forget your camera. Can you see the 7 major stars of Ursa Minor ( that includes the pole star) with your eyes when they have dark adjusted? If so, you stand a chance.

From my front garden (My house faces south at the front, North at the back, roughly) I can see the 7 major stars. And I can see (Very faintly) the pole star.

I cannot, however, make out more than one of the stars in the andromeda constellation at any given time.

[pipnina]

From my front garden (My house faces south at the front, North at the back, roughly) I can see the 7 major stars. And I can see (Very faintly) the pole star.

I cannot, however, make out more than one of the stars in the andromeda constellation at any given time.

Also, with my binoculars, I can make out a lot of fainter stars in Orion (Although there is much less LP in the south)

[Chris]

Have you thought about purchasing a cheap skywatcher light polution filter to help things a little? They work better on nebula but will help with galaxies.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction/skywatcher-light-pollution-filter.html

There might be better ones out there but these punch above their weight for the price

[Owmuchonomy]

Not sure you are looking at the stars in Ursa Minor. The Pole Star is the brightest at Mag 2 and similar to Kochab. The other 5 are dimmer. I suggest if the Pole Star is faint to you then you have a big issue with LP. Therefore you will struggle to see much. M31 may still be visible via binoculars or a scope but only the very brightest part of the core.

[pipnina]

Have you thought about purchasing a cheap skywatcher light polution filter to help things a little? They work better on nebula but will help with galaxies.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction/skywatcher-light-pollution-filter.html

There might be better ones out there but these punch above their weight for the price

I heard those only work with certain types of light.

Thing is, Plymouth started a three-year project to replace every street lamp with (Supposedly) low-LP (But very bright and very white) LEDs. I fear that change may offset the use of an LP filter.

One of the streets near me has already been completely fitted out with these new lamps. As well as one on the way to my dad's workplace.

[pipnina]

Not sure you are looking at the stars in Ursa Minor. The Pole Star is the brightest at Mag 2 and similar to Kochab. The other 5 are dimmer. I suggest if the Pole Star is faint to you then you have a big issue with LP. Therefore you will struggle to see much. M31 may still be visible via binoculars or a scope but only the very brightest part of the core.

I see. I'll have to wait until I can get a forecast clear night to go to a dark spot I found about 30~ miles away from the centre of plymouth.

[ronin]

If you are in a town it is difficult, and a lot depends on the exact amount of light where you are.

One "strange" thing about M31 is that you will miss it for some time, then one day there it is, and once seen+found you then find it easy the next time and every time after that.

I suspect that what you expect and what you actually see is sufficently different that for the initial attempts the faint patch that is M31 is simply ignored and not counted.

You can find Andromeda and count 2 stars along then step up, but I tend to now use the steep "V" of Casseiopia as a pointer to M31.

Use binoculars, but really a darkish area is the best.

Also it looks nothing like a galaxy as seen in the many images that are around.

Also owing to the optic nerve, if you look at M31 it sort of disappears.

[Qualia]

You might find this link useful, Pipnina.

Other than that, it looks like your initial concern is more geared towards imagers rather than visual observers. If that is so, perhaps asking in that section will be more fruitful? I know nothing about imaging but I imagine better photos are taken by stacking multiple subs and in the post process editing out light pollution. I've read that LP filters are also useful to imagers.

[Psychobilly]

What camera are you using?  It might be performing long exposure noise reduction - effectively auto darks this  will take at least as long as the preceeding light exposure while the camera takes another exposure the same length as the light but with the shutter "closed" and a little bit more while the camera does the dark subtraction...

The LP sodium lamps on our road have jut been replaced with LED white light ones...

Peter...

[lukebl]

........The LP sodium lamps on our road have jut been replaced with LED white light ones...

How are you finding the LP levels with your new lights? We have the old orange ones round here which are easy to filter out. I live in fear of them being replaced with bright white LEDs. Inevitable, probably.

[Psychobilly]

It's a lot darker in my garden which is much higher than the road.. I now need a torch to read my star maps and when setting up and stripping down... Most of the lighting further afield is still LP sodium so my skyglow is still orange and easily filtered out...

The house the other side of the road is a lot below it and it's like daylight in his garden...

Peter...