Which DSO's

[Dave006]

Been a complete newb I was wondering what would be the best DSO's for me to get up n running. For viewability and ease of find. I started hunting the other night but started to get a bit frustrated and I think I need pointing in the right direction to start- not literally.

Clear skies:iamwithstupid:

[Slangers]

Go for one of the globular clusters. M13 would be easy to find and is a stunning sight.

[RikM]

M57, the ring nebula is another object that is quite easy to find. It's midway between the lower bright pair of stars in Lyra. It will appear in you low power EP as quite a small smoky disc and with increased magnification you should be able to make out that it is a ring.

[Astro Imp]

Hi Dave,

To help you find your way around download Stellarium a really useful free planatarium program.

Try not to get frustrated, just take your time and pick a couple of objects each time you observe and you will soon get the hang of it.

Good luck, keep us posted on how you get on.

[brantuk]

Have a look around Cygnus (the swan) for an interesting constellation tour - Alberio and the Veil to name two of it's objects

[Dave006]

Cheers for the heads up will let know how it goes should be out there tomorrow night. And Saturn with my new TMB.

Clear skies one and all. Not too long till the solstice then the darkness shall start to creep back in.

[Bart]

Hi Dave,

[Bart]

Hi Dave

Please ignore premature sending of post a minute ago...I'm relatively new to this as well (late Jan 2011). The previous suggestions are good, M13 and M57 are lovely. I was amazed at M57. M11 is also great. A couple of months ago I struggled to find the objects. Now I have managed to get to almost 60 Messiers. Some nights i could discover 5, 6 or even 7 new ones (pretty long sessions at times, though not recently with short, bright nights!). The latest boon to help me is a Telrad finder and some Telrad charts. With the chart, the finder and a low power eyepiece I have managed to locate many with relative ease. One recent discovery which I find absolutely beautiful is M8.....lovely.

Have fun, thats the most important thing, especially in the early days when you've managed to locate a DSO or two during an evening, its very exciting.

Bart

[swamp thing]

Hi Dave

My advice would be: Don't try to hard to find anything, like brantuk suggests just point your scope at the milky way around Cygnus and go for a wander up and down the sky.

The Milky way is a fantastic sight follow it with your scope all the way down to Sagittarius.

You'll come across star clusters and Nebula on the way. You can look these up on stellarium later to find out which ones you observed.

The important thing is you'll be using your scope and getting used to how it moves. These are the things that will be useful later when you set out to find things.

You'll learn how to move your scope real quick this way and won't even realise your doing it.

Star hopping is dead easy once you understand how your scope moves and the field or view you can see.

Take your time, relax and just enjoy the night sky. There's no rush to find objects.

Regards Steve

[g0ibi]

Hi Dave, as a newbie myself I struggled to find DSO's for a while, I use Stellarium but last night my Goto clicked-in and was spot-on! I easily got M13, M5 and M92 but best of all was Albireo in Cygnes, it was a fantastic sight and my first taste of colour in the night sky! Good luck and clear skies...

[Dave006]

Thanks guys, that helps alot. Wish the damn clouds would pass.

Hope to get a couple of hours in later.

Clear skies