trouble seeing dso's

[redgiantjohn]

Just wondering what m31 or any of the other 'easy' to find dso's would look like through my scope its a skywatcher 150p dob I had the first clear night for 2 and a half weeks last night and tried locating m31 but couldn't find it not sure if it was due to LP or me looking in the wrong place but I'd like to know what it looks like so if I do find it ill know what it is thanx john

[yeti monster]

I think it would look like spaceblokes image, if, perhaps, somewhat dimmer:

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/150336-one-sub-andromeda.html

[chemtom24]

was looking for it last night ufnnily enough, couldnt findit tho.

looks like yeti monsters link - you will only see the central area tho and it will be a grey smudge. you may even mistake it for somehting else so look slowly and carefully and it should appear somewhere

thats providing the seeing and lp is good. last night was terrible, it just wouldnt show itself.

[tbird]

The conditions up here were excellent and I could just make out M31 with the naked eye and averted vision, still just a fuzzy blob in the scope though. Milky way was amazing.

[yeti monster]

Oh yes, use as long a focal length EP as you can get away with and allow your eye to take in as much as possible, spend a good 30 minutes at least absorbing the massivness of the thing....

[redgiantjohn]

Ok thanks for the tips,I was worried i would mistake it for a bright star so I wouldn't recognise it as M31 plus I'm only using the EP's that came with the scope but hoping to buy a couple of upgrades asap.I did find what looke like an amazing cluster when I was pointing roughly towards perseus(although I could be mistaken as I'm still learning my way around the night sky) at least I think it was a cluster it was hundreds of stars all grouped close together and it looked fantastic, any ideas what I was looking at?

[step7]

I managed to take a look at M31 through my 20x80 binoculars last night. I think the light pollution is pretty bad where I live. I just swept up from Mirach, passed HIP4436 (which I could just about see with naked eye) until HIP3881 (which was totally invisible with the naked eye) came into my field of view.

[ronin]

You won't mistake it for a faint star, but being the size it is all you would "see" is the central core and the core does not have a great amount of real detail. The structure is in the arms and they are a bit too faint for a 150 to be able to pick out anything. Also it is not at a great angle to be able to see a great deal, which isn't often mentioned, but is significant.

The central core will be a faint grey blob. Not very exciting description but close to the truth.

Much better under dark skies, general light pollutiuon does not help M31.

[redgiantjohn]

Finally managed to observe it last night my first Dso first of many I hope