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Clear night...no DSOs:(


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Went out again tonight an tried to look in virgo cluster(i think, it was to the east) but I still couldn't find any, the only one ive seen is the bee hive cluster near jupiter but no faint fuzzies:( any ideas why?

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Most of the galaxies are pretty faint and won't jump out at you at all. If there is any haze or light pollution thats going to add to the challenge. Concentrate on trying to see the brightest in that area such as M65 and M66 which are just below the hind quarters of Leo. You will need a star map or software to pinpoint where to look. You may well not see them in the finder. Use your lowest power eyepiece to slowly scan back and forth across the area of the sky where the galaxies are located. Watch out for small dim soft hazy patches of light.

Keep at it ! :smiley:

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Last night was pretty bad I thought. Most of the stars were twinkling which I think means high turbulance and there was cloud about. I could just make out M94 but as soon as I put my LP on it dissapeared. There always tonight.

If you haven't got any telrad finder charts you can find them here

http://www.solarius.net/Pages/Articles/dbArticle.aspx?artid=messier_finders

http://www.atmob.org/library/member/skymaps_jsmall.html

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Will filters help in distinguishing DSOs from the sky? And which types of filter for which type of DSOs? I don't understand the weird squiggly line graphs

Nebula filters (UHC, O-III, and H-Beta) only work on emission nebula, or reflection nebula reflecting emission line stars They can help show extragalactic nebulae (nebulous patches in other galaxies) but you really need dark skies to locate the galaxies in first.

Apart from the filters I've mentioned above, I personally don't think any other filters do anything to aid deep sky views. I've seen very slight increase in contrast when using a light pollution filter coupled with a small Frac, but in larger scopes they seem to do nothing at all.

In your scope I'd only recommend a proper nebula filter of the type mentioned above.

Of the three mentioned the general consensus of opinion is to opt for the UHC first.

One last note filters are NOT a replacement for dark skies. You must try and get to as dark a spot as you can and nake sure your eyes are properly dark adapted before starting to hunt.

For nebula observing the order of importance IMO is

1. Dark transparent skies with properly dark adapted vision

2. Nebula filters.

There are other considerations like exit pupil, aperture and image scale, but get the first two right and the rest is to concern yourself with later.

Good hunting :)

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Is the Baader UHC S filter from FLO any good?

It's a decent filter but it's designed for smaller aperture scopes than yours so you might as well go for a full UHC filter such as the Skywatcher UHC. The new Explore Scientific UHC filters seem to be well priced as well:

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Explore-Scientific-1.25--UHC-Nebula-Filter.html

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It always comes in 3's. This will be the third time today I've handed this out.....

An excellent article on which filters are best for various DSO's, you can't go wrong having this under your belt:

http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/resources/by-dave-knisely/filter-performance-comparisons-for-some-common-nebulae/

Many other good things on that site as well.

Clear & Dark Skies,

Dave

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Most of the galaxies are pretty faint and won't jump out at you at all. If there is any haze or light pollution thats going to add to the challenge. Concentrate on trying to see the brightest in that area such as M65 and M66 which are just below the hind quarters of Leo. You will need a star map or software to pinpoint where to look. You may well not see them in the finder. Use your lowest power eyepiece to slowly scan back and forth across the area of the sky where the galaxies are located. Watch out for small dim soft hazy patches of light.

Keep at it ! :smiley:

John has basically (and extremely well) summed it up. Galaxies are difficult to spot even on the clearest night. If there is even a hint of high whispy cloud about, the job is even harder because galaxies in themselves appear to be patches of whispy cloud. When i hunt galaxies, i start off scanning the skies in the area where i know the galaxy i want is and i use my lowest power EP (30mm). When i find it, i swap the EP for say a 15mm and refocus. Then i may swap the EP again and refocus til i have a nice view.

My preference of EP's for hunting galaxies is the Vixen NPL range as i find they deliver excellent contrast between faint fuzzies and the darker background of space. I also find them very sharp in the views they give.

My first galaxies were found using a 130mm Heritage. The "Black Eye", Andromeda,The Leo trio. I even found "The Ring nebula" with the same scope. This was not from a dark sky location. It was from my last house about 20km south of Dublin city. LP wasnt too bad. You just have to know what to expect and look for. The Milky Way when i saw it from the same location looked like thin cloud or even smoke stretching across the sky. 

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Nebula filters (UHC, O-III, and H-Beta) only work on emission nebula, or reflection nebula reflecting emission line stars They can help show extragalactic nebulae (nebulous patches in other galaxies) but you really need dark skies to locate the galaxies in first.

Apart from the filters I've mentioned above, I personally don't think any other filters do anything to aid deep sky views. I've seen very slight increase in contrast when using a light pollution filter coupled with a small Frac, but in larger scopes they seem to do nothing at all.

In your scope I'd only recommend a proper nebula filter of the type mentioned above.

Of the three mentioned the general consensus of opinion is to opt for the UHC first.

One last note filters are NOT a replacement for dark skies. You must try and get to as dark a spot as you can and nake sure your eyes are properly dark adapted before starting to hunt.

For nebula observing the order of importance IMO is

1. Dark transparent skies with properly dark adapted vision

2. Nebula filters.

There are other considerations like exit pupil, aperture and image scale, but get the first two right and the rest is to concern yourself with later.

Good hunting :)

These are all good points Steve, but rightly or wrongly, I think Apeture can be a substitute for dark skies. let me clarify this.  When I was looking through yours and calvins scopes  I was nowhere near dark adapted yet I was seeing more faint galaxies in a few short hrs than I've seen in my 8" from darker skies. Obviously I would see even more from darker skies but I'd love to try them from my garden....hint,hint ;)

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"These are all good points Steve, but rightly or wrongly, I think Apeture can be a substitute for dark skies."

I can only agree with this. From my last house i had the luxury of using/comparing a 130mm scope (mini Dob) and a 200mm SCT. On average, the sky conditions were the same most nights but i got better views with the 200mm SCT. Filtered or un-filtered on both scopes, the views in the 200mm blew the 130mm out of the water.

I'm a big advocate of making the most of the skies that you can from your back garden. For whatever reason, many of us cant/wont travel to dark sky locations. If you cant/wont travel to dark skies, filters and aperture are your friend.

UHC/OIII filters are nebulae filters. They simply wont/dont work when observing galaxies. 

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I've been using 'starchart' app for android, I've been pointing it at places aswell as using it to star hop, what kind of DSOs will I be able to see If I have LP

Currently globular clusters, distinguishable and appreciable from home, yet magnificent and spell binding from a true dark sky.

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Messier 13 is the brightest globular cluster in the northern skies. It's in Hercules which is starting to be well positioned now and will get better over the coming weeks. There is another excellent globular cluster in Hercules and thats Messier 92. Both well worth a look. Filters won't help with these objects though, they only enhance the contrast of nebulae. For that reason I'd recommend eyepieces just now rather than a filter which I'm sure you will also want to add in due course.

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I've been using 'starchart' app for android, I've been pointing it at places aswell as using it to star hop, what kind of DSOs will I be able to see If I have LP

These gadgets are next to useless. They blind you with their screens and only give you the vaguest idea of where to look. Finding objects needs dark adaptation and precision. You would be 100x better off with paper charts, a soft red head torch and lots of dark adaptation. 

Olly

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It's a decent filter but it's designed for smaller aperture scopes than yours so you might as well go for a full UHC filter such as the Skywatcher UHC. The new Explore Scientific UHC filters seem to be well priced as well:

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Explore-Scientific-1.25--UHC-Nebula-Filter.html

 I've just found a website and it says that under lp an OIII is better is this true?

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 I've just found a website and it says that under lp an OIII is better is this true?

On certain objects and under certain conditions, yes. It's too much of a sweeping statement just to say that an O-III is better than a UHC though. They sort of compliment one and other.

Constellations move across the sky as the evening progresses though - what might be behind a tree or house at one time could be clear of it later on :smiley:

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These are all good points Steve, but rightly or wrongly, I think Apeture can be a substitute for dark skies. let me clarify this.  When I was looking through yours and calvins scopes  I was nowhere near dark adapted yet I was seeing more faint galaxies in a few short hrs than I've seen in my 8" from darker skies. Obviously I would see even more from darker skies but I'd love to try them from my garden....hint,hint ;)

Come on mate, be fair. You were looking through an 18" and a 20" Dob at SGLX. These were giving you the view of an extended object with over four times the surface area at the same surface brightness when compared to your 8". This is a huge difference in image scale.

Few people are going to upgrade to that extent from an 8" scope.

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