My first fuzzies!

[northernnutter]

Lovely clear night last night, (albeit a bit breezy!)...so out with the Dob. Set up and ready to go by around 22:30.

Decided to look for clusters, and just generally get used to moving the scope/ using the finderscope.

First target...M13.

Hercules was in a lovely position at the bottom of the garden, so just manually pointed the scope at where i thought it would be. ( Not very technical..I know). Panned around a bit with the 25mm eyepiece and then..."ohh...what was that??"...slowly moved the scope left, then....fuzzy blob!!..and it was much bigger than I expected! Changed to 10mm, and wow! Absolutely gorgeous. Could see lots of pinprick stars scattered out from the bright centre. I was 'literally' jumping up and down.

A little nudge left, and down a bit...and there was M92! Not as big, but still very clear. In fact the 'centre' looked brighter to me.

Next stop...M3. This was much harder to find! Tried to use the finderscope to get close to the area, but struggled with this....too many stars...disorientated...so reverted to my..'point and hope' method...moving between Arcturus and Canes Venatici very sloooly!! Almost gave up to be honest, but then....POP....there it was! This one was definately not as clear to see.....but I was glad I persevered!

Now this may sound like I 'zipped' from one cluster to the other.....in reality, finding these babies took a grand total of 3 1/2 hrs!! ( How the time flies!!)

Was gonna attempt the double cluster in Perseus, as I've seen this in me Binos', and knew it was just visible now over me garden fence, (02:00am!), but decided to leave for another night!

Suffice to say.....I loved finding and observing my very first Fuzzies!!!)

Vicky.

[frankie]

Well done mate, still yet to find mine, finding it a nightmare with the finder scope, Do you have the standard finder scope with your dob? How big did they look through the eyepiece? say compared to saturn?

[northernnutter]

Well done mate, still yet to find mine, finding it a nightmare with the finder scope, Do you have the standard finder scope with your dob? How big did they look through the eyepiece? say compared to saturn?

Hey frankie, thanks.

And don't give up....if I can find them, anyone can!!!

I have the standard finderscope, and find it quite difficult to use too!!It's difficult to define which star is which, and the angle is a right pain in the back. I've been advised that a right angled finderscope is more comfortable, and something like a 'Telrad' helps finding your position in the sky much easier...but with no budget left, I'll be stuck with what I've got for the mo.

For me....I point the main telescope in the right area...then look through the finderscope...try to identify a pattern of stars...then check stellarium, to see if anything looks familiar near the target I'm aiming at...then just pan around very slowly.....it's slow, and probably not the best way..( I'm a newbie too, and still learning..), but it's worked so far.

When you 'do' see the fuzzy...there's no mistaking it! A light grey blob...i was surprised how big they appear in the eyepiece....bigger than saturn....(saturn in my 10mm is still pinprick size, but very clear/ bright...gorgeous). M13 in my 10mm was much bigger...more 'spread out'...but dimmer....once you find it, you can't mistake it!!

Hope that helps a bit!

Good luck and clear skies!!

vic.

[frankie]

Thanks vic ill give it a shot fingers crossed

[banner001]

i got M81 and M82 nice on saturday night, easy enough to find, with a dob and finderscope should take you 5 minutes and they will look stunning!

[northernnutter]

i got M81 and M82 nice on saturday night, easy enough to find, with a dob and finderscope should take you 5 minutes and they will look stunning!

Hey Banner,

It's really wierd! Had a look for these last night...albeit at the end of the session, and couldn't find them! Ursa Major is directly above my head at the mo, and I'm finding it really difficult to point the Dob straight up, in the right place...I would have thought finding things in this position would have been easier?? but not the case for me!!!

Hopefully, tonite will be good, and I'll start the session with these two. Would be great to find my first galaxy!

[banner001]

they were my first galaxy, look around 11pm should be a good time, high in the sky, but not too vertical.

find Phad and Dubhe in ursa major (if the handle is to your left and polaris is above ursa major these two stars are the lower left and upper right stars of the pan, respectively), the distance that seperates them we will call y, imagine a line extending from Phad through Dubhe, follow that line for that same distance (y) past Dubhe and M81 and M82 should be (spacially) just to the right of that point, they should be visible through the finder by then

M81 will look like a fuzzy ball, M82 will look like a slightly wavy fuzzy line.

[northernnutter]

Thanks Banner! Can't wait to give it a try!!