DID I SEE M31?

[redgiantjohn]

I had a lovely clear night last night and decided to try and search for some dso's,after I managed to block out the LP from the ridiculously bright streetlight next to my garden by balancing some ply against the wall after doing that it was amazing what a difference it made it was amazing I didn't realise how bad the LP was until I blocked it out.anyway after doing that I was doing some star hopping and was pointing in the general direction of andromeda and I noticed a faint grey blob, I nearly missed it as it was very faint and I had to keep adjusting my eyes was this M31? If not what could it have been? If it was M31 then whooooo my first dso

[drewzilla]

Nice one. What scope have u got? By "adjusting my eyes" do you mean using averted vision? But grats on the first DSO! It wont be your last !

[Carbon Brush]

Well done for getting M31 at this time of year against the LP.

It certainly sounds like M31. The brightest 'blob' in that area.

[redgiantjohn]

Nice one. What scope have u got? By "adjusting my eyes" do you mean using averted vision? But grats on the first DSO! It wont be your last !

I have a skywatcher 150p dob and yes I noticed when I looked directly at it it seemed almost to disappear so was sort of looking to the side of it and it seemed much clearer

[milkyjoe]

Yes, m31 is a grey fuzzy blob and you have to use averted vision to see it - looking directly at it doesn't work as well. I was looking at m31 too through my 10x50 bins! ;-)

[Dodge]

I saw M31 for the first time too last night with my 130P Heritage with the stock 25mm EP. I didn't need averted vision despite some residual glow in the sky (it was only around 11 pm).

Really looking forward to the autumn so the darker skies are at more sociable hours!

[drewzilla]

11pm! You must have some dark skies!

[Dodge]

11pm! You must have some dark skies!

Yep, I'm fairly lucky - the nearest source of LP is a small town around 5 miles away. There's a streetlight in my road, but it's blocked by my house.

Still, M31 was still only a small grey smudge.

[tom714uk]

After I found out a couple of weeks ago I was getting a scope for my 30th (couple of months to go) I went out and started looking at the sky with some tiny knackered 8x21 binoculars I had. I live on the outskirts of Cambridge, so moderate light pollution, but once I'd started to find my way around the constellations I found M31 without much trouble. I was pretty pleased! Could just about see it without averted vision in those, and now that I have much better 10x50s, direct vision is fine. I reckon I'm seeing about the central 50% of it, with hints of more when using averted vision. Under ideal conditions I can imagine it being visible to the naked eye.

[Stephen]

I bagged M31 for the first time last night as well! Snapped some images but must of knocked the mount as it's partially out of frame

200P + 32mm showed a grey fuzzy blob.

Definitely not viewable for me with naked eye though due to LP.

[faulksy]

ite exciting seeing it the first time. first time i seen it around 3 years ago i thought is that it nothing like pics you see then i found out. you can only see it like that if you have got hubble in your back yard

[brantuk]

Congrats !! M31 is very exciting first time you see it - allmost missable in these light nights but visible naked eye in autumn/winter - well done

[Earl]

There is also a patch of our milky way a little to the right and up that i think stands out a little more than M31

[russ.will]

After I found out a couple of weeks ago I was getting a scope for my 30th (couple of months to go) I went out and started looking at the sky with some tiny knackered 8x21 binoculars I had. I live on the outskirts of Cambridge, so moderate light pollution, but once I'd started to find my way around the constellations I found M31 without much trouble. I was pretty pleased! Could just about see it without averted vision in those, and now that I have much better 10x50s, direct vision is fine. I reckon I'm seeing about the central 50% of it, with hints of more when using averted vision. Under ideal conditions I can imagine it being visible to the naked eye.

I had my fortieth at the beginning of June and through luck (okay, by design!) got an HEQ5 PRO Synscan and SW200p instead of the Omega Seamaster Chronograph I had promised myself for the last ten years. At the last moment, I realised some things had fascinated me for 30 years of my life and the resulting epiphany, changed my mind.

The trouble is, I leave for work early in the morning, so waiting for decent darkness at this time of the year is off the cards, given the typical n00b 1/2 hour of setup I require. Your post reminds me that I should buy myself a half decent set of binos in order to make use of the darkness available to me.

At least I'm getting a severe amount of practice at collimation, so some things will be down pat by the time I can use this puppy in anger.

Russell