Kon

Try to make sure your eyes are dark adapted as well. Any stray light will also spoil your views as well; a few nights ago, i was out observing nebulas and my wife turned the lights on in the sitting room and i could not find anything, as soon as that light went off i could find the faint smudges. Try practice using your averted vision, many of these faint objects are hard to see. An easy DSO is M97 and M1, not much star hoping and ok even with some moon light. Try pick some easy targets. The Leo galaxies are also easy to spot. I also found with DSOs that any high altitude thin clouds/mist will make it nearly impossible to find them. Since you mentioned nebulas, quite a few of them are the size of a 5p coin in the EP so the Orion is spoiling us, so do not expect that brightness and size. Try use a low EP magnification to locate them and then move to a bit higher. Worth taking a look at the Observing Reports or Deep sky in this forum for ideas on targets. Turn Left at Orion is good to get a feeling on how things will look, it is pretty spot on with my 8" Dob.

Very nice sketch and detailed notes.

Yes it was a great night; i think it helps that I am under relatively dark skies (bortle 4).

I am sure you will get to see them soon. I am usually jealous of your reports since you seem to have clear skies more often than us.

I am loving every aspect of the hobby so far and this forum has some great suggestions. I sometimes feel that the more experienced members might feel 'so what' but their comments are always very supportive and encouraging.

I totally agree. I am also surprised that fairly standard telescopes (not talking multimillion setups) can reveal such jewels in the sky.

After reading @John post earlier this evening (and @Pixies recommendation) I was inspired to look at some galaxies at Leo and Virgo! As I newbie in the hobby I had never visited them. I had a look at Turn Left at Orion and I was amazed to see all these galaxies together, and i made a plan to visit these areas. I took out my 8" Dob and it did not disappoint. I started with Leo since it was getting S to my horizon. Looking at the Leo Triplet I got goosebumps. Three elongated smudges almost fitting in my FOV of the 25mm EP (I got my wife out of bed, to show her; luckily she enjoyed it). I have never seen anything like that. I managed to also see M105, NGC3384, M96, M95, NGC3227 (not sure about 26 since it was an elongated smudge without much definition), NGC3596. Wherever I hovered you just found little smudges of light. I then moved to M86 and M87 and that blew my mind off! Smudges everywhere, I lost track of what I managed to see but I just kept hovering around looking at smudges of light appearing. The viewing was not the best in the end with some light haze coming in. Thanks guys for your reports (very inspirational to get me out tonight to look at something different) and suggestions! I will definitely revisit these two constellations.

Excellent going! I got inspiration from your previous post and I did some quick viewing on Leo and Virgo! Amazing!

As I newbie I did not realise that Leo was full of galaxies cluster so close to each other. It must be a sight! I will try give them a go next time I am out.

Very nicely drawn, the nebulosity has some nice features in your drawing, it is like looking down an EP. Well done.

No worries at all. I will look in SkySafari and some google searches.

Based on our previous discussions I ordered the TV Bandmate II OIII filter, so eagerly waiting for its arrival. I will report on its performance once i have the chance to use it.

Very nice report and a lot of exciting targets you bagged there.

Thanks. I find nebulas fascinating and waiting for the cloudless/moonless nights is exciting; plenty of time for planning/researching. I am new to the hobby so there are still a few easy ones for me to go through (plus waiting for spring and summer ones) but I agree some of them are hard to call. Do you mind sharing your list or is there a link?

At last some clear skies without the moon out. As you know I am after nebulas and tonight it did not disappoint. I started with M76 (Little Dumbbell Nebula) before it disappeared behind my neighbour's roof. Upon finding it I felt that warm feeling of excitement! I could make out an elongated shape with direct vision but with averted I could almost make out a darker area between the two halves. It looked great at both the 8 and 15 mm EPs, i think the 8mm was better since it made the surrounding sky a bit darker and the 'separation' more pronounced. I then moved to Cepheus and i tried for C4 (Iris Nebula). I think i saw a diffuse glow around the star but I felt underwhelmed after the M76. I moved to C9 (Cave Nebula) and without a filter I think there may have been some nebulosity. The whole area on my 25mm EP had a very light 'haziness' to it and moving along W the sky became darker again so it may have been C9? While I was in that area I looked for C11 (Bubble nebula) and the viewing was as in C9 (hazy that became darker as I moved along); while I was there the stars looked beautiful with loads of yellows and whites. I had a quick look on M52 cluster (it would have been rude not). I want to revisit the area once my filter has arrived. I then moved to Draco to look for the C6 (Cat's eye nebula). I found it pretty easily and it looked great; a small round fuzzy disk (I even got my wife out to take a look and she was also impressed). It really stood out in the dark surrounding (thus my disappointment on C4, i thought i would see something similar. I also showed her the M1 (Crab Nebula) and she was even more impressed. I had seen before but it looked nice on the 15 mm EP as a 'squashed' large disk.I finally tried to look for NGC 2261 but I just could not find it! I think after 2.5 hrs of viewing I was getting pretty cold and my eyes were refusing to focus or search any longer. Scope back in the sitting room warming up and me having a cup of tea and writing this report. Overall an excellent night with many new targets. As the title says, it was a feast of nebulas for my eyes and mind! I wish my filter had arrived but FLO told me it should be with me this week, fingers crossed the weather will hold! I hope everybody else had great viewing.

Congrats! It has eluded me the last few sessions so well done!

I attempted to capture the Mars and Pleiades conjunction (1 day late due to clouds). I used a Nikon D3200 on a tripod, 50 frames stacked in Siril, iso 800, 18-55mm (@55mm), 5s exposure, some stretching in Gimp .

Very nice capture and framing!

I got an 8" Dob and it is great! I am under 4 bortle. I am into nebulas and it delivers extremely good viewing. Open clusters look great and so far the moon and mars have been great. I only had mine since December so looking forward to the summer for the jupiter and saturn. Have a look at the link john sent above, the viewing is similar to that post.

Nice report! A lot of nice targets.

Great report and glad you managed a quick viewing despite the clouds.

Have a look at this link as well regarding how things will show: The link is pretty spot on, on how things will appear. Your mobile phone image is pretty good on M42. Make sure you observe after you have been in the dark for a good 30min or so. Moon will also washout many of the DSOs so a new moon will be better for them. Happy viewing!

I am afraid not; I got a Sky-watcher Classic 200P Dob so not much room for turning.

That's impressive! Very nice processing.

@John and @Nik271 with my Dob I managed to see the star ENE for the first time last night just above the diffraction spike as in my sketch. I can regularly see the WSW star. Would the diffraction spikes from the spider vanes make it nearly impossible to see it? Is it worth keep going?