Help..

[8633Brown]

This is probably a very newbie question but i'm really struggling to find m101 the pinwheel galaxy, m107 the owl nebulae and m51 the whirlpool galaxy.

i'm trying to find them using a red dot site and a finder scope then looking through my scope with a 25mm ep on a skywatcher 200p and just star hopping as much as i can to get the right location.

iv had fairly little viewing time mainly because of work commitments and the bad weather for the last couple of months so iv only had the scope out a few times in the past year and have only really viewed the moon, the 7 sisters, planets and the Orion nebula.

i was really looking forward to my next viewing session, which was last night, and was quite disappointed with myself for not being able to find them. although the moon was very bright so i was unsure weather i would actually be able to see these with the moon lighting up everything.

help would be greatly appreciated... thanks.

[Nova]

ive found these pretty hard to find myself during my limiited time in this hobby. ive so far only found M51 out of the 3 mentioned and even then it was very very faint almost like 2 fine misty patches. light pollution is my biggest enemy. you need it to be very dark with good seeing and no moon. all i can suggest is to keep trying. have you tried going after globular clusters? M13 in Herc is a great sight even in light polluted skys and is easy to find.

[starguest]

hi 8633Brown,

No chance! A fairly sweeping statement but I was out from 10.30 till 3am with a 200mm and none of these were seen and I use GOTO. I reckon it really was the seeing as I have glimpsed them at better times. Even though M13 was mentioned, it looked pretty poor last night. Cheer yourself up with a look at Jupiter and some of the star clusters, galaxies and gas nebulae are kind of 'oot the windae' at this time. Well maybe not so much in reald dark spots.

[John]

The Owl Nebula really benefits hugely from a UHC or O-III filter - it's very hard to spot without one, even with an 8" scope. M51 and M101 can be elusive if there is any light pollution or moonlight in the sky, like all galaxies. Filters don't help with galaxies though.

[Ant]

As John mentioned the moon light will make these difficult to see.

M101 is big - 46' - which is actually 50% bigger than the full moon. So whilst bright, it's spread out over a large area which make it quite difficult to spot.

Cheers

Ant

[Nova]

hi 8633Brown,

Even though M13 was mentioned, it looked pretty poor last night.

Have to admit I've not tried M13 with a near full moon in the sky

[swamp thing]

Hi

Any time near the full Moon is not the time to start hunting for faint badly placed Galaxies and Nebulae.

All three of these objects can be readily seen with an 8" scope from dark skies, but still it would be best to wait until they are higher in the sky. You don't want to be trying to see faint objects through the thickest part of the atmosphere unless you cannot help it.

Try some better placed objects that are higher in the sky and ones with high surface brightness like open clusters and double stars when the Moon is nearly full. Wait until the time near the new Moon before trying to hunt down large faint low surface brightness objects. Even then Ursa Majors DSO's are low in the sky and not easy at this time of year.

Good hunting and clear skies

Regards Steve

[Pete Presland]

m13 and m31 are both easy spots even with a full moon,but you are better off waiting for a moon free night to enjoy them at their best.