How to find the 'Leo Triplet'

[blinky]

Everybody keeps posting these lovely images of the 3 galaxies in Leo that are really close together. As it is looking (hope I have not jinxed it) like tonight might be a good night I am wondering how to find these? I dont have goto etc and while I do have setting circles I have never used 'em and am not sure how accurate they are. They also look quite complex to actually read the value from them. So....Star hopping it is!

[GazOC]

Theres no real secret, you just find the star at the botton of the lions head/neck called Chertan and using a low power eyepeice just drop down 2 degrees slightly towards the East. If the seeing is OK they are pretty easy to find under reasonable skies. Good luck!

[blinky]

Did not realise it was that easy. 1/2 a degree is about the full moon is it not? So that would be 4 moons down and to the east.

Asu usual though I have jinxed it, all cloudy here now

[lunator]

Blinky

don't worry your chance will arrive.

I got a good look at M65 &66 last night. I didn't plan to but as I was investigating some nelected double in Leo (more on that later) I though I would stop by.

They are very easy to find. Just find the bottom righthand star of the triangle that makes up the back of Leo. Drop straight down to the faintest star undeneath and slowly track East with a wideangle eyepeice. I used y 25mm ortho = 0.75 degree FOV and they will appear as two grey smudges.

Cheers

ian

[CELESCOPE]

look even better , live on the puter screen , and nice to image as well , may have ago again at them tonight as it happens

Rog

[proflight2000]

well im still trying i did however find what looks like a double star maybe .5 of a degree apart if that, but along the way I saw what looks like a very far away orange/red star, any ideas? I think the bad light here is stopping me seeing the real triangle mentioned, still I was given a good story to find the constellation of Leo. I am to imagine that the the plough is a pot and has a hole in the bottom of the pot, when hot soup is poured in it falls on leo the lion and make him roar, silly I know but anything helps.

I cant wait till I get the heq goto upgrade, cheating or not im desperate now.

[nitram100]

Hey, i found them for the first time the other day with a little help from starry night pro plus 6

Heres the images i made the other day, which i printed and used as guides, it also has some other goodies on there aswell if you're feeling ambitious , there's so many lovely objects in that region. I used the first image to line the scope up roughly in the area of the triplets then the second image to pinpoint em.

Good luck!

[geppetto]

This is my method using two of the brighter stars..

[blinky]

Just need a good clear night now. Been very very hazzy up here in Edinburgh. The screenshots make it look a lot easier than I imagined.

[blinky]

Just found them Very very faint but I suppose it was only 9:30 and not as dark as it gets. Could make out that one of them was kinda cigar shaped while the other was a bit too faint to see any detail but I suppose it is more 'round'. Tonight also made me realise that imaging is really the way to go for me. I do get a kick out of seeing them with me own eyes but you just dont get the same level of detail (obviously) that you get from an image. I am also slowly heading down the GOTO route as well. It has taken me a few weeks to find these and I am thinking these are also quite bright galaxies? So GOTO is really needed for the dimmer ones, still I did get a little excited when I eventually found 'em.

All in all a very successfull evening, thats another one to tick of

[geppetto]

All in all a very successfull evening, thats another one to tick of

Well done for sticking with it till you found em 8)

[proflight2000]

wey hey i actually found it this evening, fainter than i had imagined but I can see two galaxies in a 20mm eyepiece ok, thanks for the tips, they were totally helpful,

[Vega]

ok ok hang on time out time out......

You know those moments when you realise all along you were confidently thinking totally the wrong thing? Well this thread has just done that to me. I thought the Leo triplet was M95, M96 and M105!

So I have seen the Leo triplet more than once.... M65/M66 duuuuh

Matt (fireing up Redshift 5 to do more homework in shame)

[daz]

1. Switch on Mount

2. Initialise GOTO

3. Select M65

.......

(Sarcastic git, I know!!)

[Vega]

Oh [sigh] GOTO.... the thing of dreams. One day...