Hungrymark

I have nothing to add about the astronomy but can I just say there's absolutely no need to apologise for your English language skills, which are excellent. Especially given that you are writing about a technical subject. All the best.

Haha, you were right, almost exactly the same as my night! M81/82 do look stunning that high up don't they?

Absolutely! Glad I wasn't the only one to get a good view of the M81 group. I think I caught some hints of arms, possibly dust lanes.

Yes, I'm noticing that! 3077 was averted vision, but I left it at one point and came back half an hour later and it was still there next to the right stars so I'm claiming it!

Skywatcher 200p dob. My first scope but I think it's going to last me a while! I really want to get out of my back garden to somewhere properly dark though. On the edge of town so some light pollution, not too bad though.

Nothing mega-exciting but having been after M109 for a while, I got it tonight. UMa was pretty high so it was just a question of getting Phecda out of the fov. Also, M108 and M97 again, the latter through a UHC filter, which I think allowed a hint of the eyes but wouldn't bet on it. I've heard M108 is one of the harder Messiers to see but I don't seem to ever have much of a problem with it. M101 remains my nemesis. Can't nail it down! M81 and M82 were stunning though. Best I've seen them in my short career so far. Hints of spiral structure in M81 and definite shadow areas in M82. Also NGC 3077

I'm relatively new too, like yourself. I don't know if you've already worked this out but what's made a staggering difference to my ability to find stuff is working out the field of view of my finder and using that to compare to star charts. Sounds so simple, but it didn't occur to me for months, felt like a right idiot. Anyway, try that and M81/82 become simple to jump to straight from Dubhe.

I found it with 37x, went up to 60x then 120x. None were satisfactory compared to sketches I've seen but, as I say, it was pretty low down this far north and that early in the evening, so I'm not disheartened, just wondering. Thanks for the reply.

It makes sense, when I think about it. Daft really. Of all the universe that is visible from here, of course the most visible objects are those massive things with billions if stars in them, but even so, blimey...

That's interesting, thanks. I bought Bratton's Herschel Objects book and was similarly staggered by quite how many of them are galaxies.

How high was M3 in the sky and, if you don't mind, what time /location? I had a peek last night (8" dob) but it was quite low (it was about 8.30pm in Cumbria) and I could only really resolve individual stars in the cluster with averted vision. I was wondering if it was the position of the cluster or some collimation issue, although I did check the scope and it seemed OK. Defocused stars were the 'correct' shape and I found E in the trapezium at 200x along with a split of iota cassiopeia, but you know when you have doubts... Basically, I'm fairly new to this sort of thing and am not really

I'm a beginner too but I find I just lose myself through the eyepiece. Nothing else matters. I do what somebody else suggested and look for something easy but cool first, like M42, the harder stuff once I've got my eye in, and then plan a finish on something I can find easily with tired eyes but of which there's always some new aspect, like the double cluster.

I couldn't split Izar the other night with a barlowed 10mm EP through a 1200mm focal length scope (240x), but it was very low down. I could see the two of them but couldn't separate.

I've only been doing this for a couple of months but got into it because I wanted to see galaxies, and they haven't let me down. I'm working my way through the Messiers and whenever I find a new one it gives me a shiver, even if on a purely visual level you can't actually see much compared to closer objects! Mind you, it being winter, haven't seen a globular yet (properly - I did find M3 last night but, for boring reasons I won't go into, the mirror had condensation on it so it was just a blob).

What kind of aperture on a dob would you expect to be able to see this, from a sort of Bortle 4 sky?

I found M94 too last night, 8" from back garden. And M63. Former was very faint so want to confirm.

Yes, looking at a star atlas there's actually quite a lot there! Well, I took the UHC out for a test run last night but with a bright half moon sitting on Orion's head it was next to useless. I was hoping to have a go at the rosette. M42 through the filter looked worse than a dark night without, so I didn't even bother with IC 1396 haha.

That's fine, I said I didn't know of much else in that direction. Thanks for the ideas ?

High up too, hmmmm

Thanks for the recommendation. Cassiopeia is in a good position from my garden.

No worries, thanks for that. I've seen the crab and owl from my back garden without much difficulty, and there's a reasonably dark site ten minutes' drive up the road. Sounds like I'm being overly-ambitious but my rationale for the elephant trunk is that the northern view from my house is the least light-polluted and I fancy a diffuse nebula. At this time of year I don't know of much else in that direction?

UHC and an OIII, inexpensive skywatcher jobs for now. I've got a 32mm plossl EP that I use for deep sky. Cheers

I've found the cluster in the middle of the rosette previously, but haven't yet received the filters so no sign of the nebula itself. It is on my list of filter-equipped targets though, along with some of the other probably-usual suspects, crab, owl etc. I was just looking at Mu Cephei the other night and noticed on the sky chart that the nebula was right next to it and that it looked fairly extensive, so was wondering! Cheers

Has anybody had any luck with this? I've got a UHC and an OIII filter ordered and fancy a bit of nebula hunting. My kit is an 8" Skyliner dob, and I'm on the edge of a small town. For LP reference, I've seen M33 once through the scope, and the other night the Leo triplet and M105 group fairly low down. Bortle scale seems to be suburban/rural transition-ish, perhaps veering slightly towards suburban, so a sort of 4.5. I can't find much helpful info on the web, mainly seems to be imaging stuff, for which I've got neither the kit, skill or inclination!

Thanks people. I'm using a Skyliner 200p at 37x mag. I'm gathering I need to wait till it's higher up or find a darker site then!