What to image next.....

[stan26]

Hi guys, I'm fairly new to Astronomy/astro-Imaging but I feel I'm making good progress up the steep learning curve, I now have pleasing images of the M42, and the M51 and have now got to grips with using DSS and Photoshop. I feel I'm about done with the M51 (for now) and ready to move on to try another object. I am limited to very basic imaging kit i.e EQ3-2/ST102 as per signature, so bareing this in mind what could you recommend....?

I have almost no views east, but excellent views south south/west, and limited views north (large trees next door) I do have fairly dark skies BUT do have one single steet lamp 75yards west of my garden. I would love to try the M101, but I read this is very faint so maybe out of the question for my prefered 30sec subs......

Any suggestions

Many thanks

Stan

[rocketandroll]

M101 unfortunately needs long subs to show up at all... 5mins plus ideally and a feed few hours of data at anything slower than f5.

Someone posted a list of actual surface brightness of a load of Messier objects. M51 is quite near the top as it's a nice compact bright galaxy. M81 is actually slightly brighter still but may be a bit too east for you? M101 is right at the bottom.

If you don't mind staying up late the North American nebula and a few other cool things around the band of the milky way are starting to come up about midnight. That's sort of northish I think.

Not so much around in the West now that Orion and the Pleiades are below the horizon by the time it's dark.

Maybe try a few globular clusters? They work great with short subs and there are a good few around. M13 maybe?

Ben

[26Left]

You could try M65 and M66. They are close to each other in Leo in the South-West. For something brighter, how about the globular clusters M5 and M13. You might need to wait a month or two for them if you can't see South-East.

Good luck!

[stan26]

Thanks guys, M81/82 are definately on the hit list, as is leo. I will try the M13 because it makes sense with the setup I have.

I did try M101 last night using my usual tactics of 30sec subs at ISO1600, and got it showing its faint spiral structure on my single subs. I'm more than happy to take hundreds of subs. I leave the camera on a self timer to do its thing whilst I enjoy the views through another refractor I have. Once I get to around 200 subs il stack them up and see what I get..........

Cheers

Stan.

[Shibby]

How about the owl nebula, nice and high in the sky with a galaxy M108 right next to it. Both are compact & around magnitude 10...

[alaskacam]

I agree with m65, m66 and ngc 3628, the Leo Triplet. NGC 3628 is the most interesting in my opinion. This will be a challenge with 30 sec subs, but not impossible in a dark sky. If you can stretch it out a bit longer it will help. Otherwise, being at 32S, I have little advice on what to look for....