What will the Pinwheel galaxy look like through my 5" telescope?

[TheEli]

I'm not sure whether I will be able to see the supernova explosion still, and so i'm wondering whether the galaxy will look still like a star or will it now be a smudge?

[hemihaggis]

hmm , i think the pinwheel will always look like a smudge through a 5" scope ,although you should be able to resolve the bright center , from a really dark site i belive a suggestion of the spiral arms is just about possible ,as for the supernova , its mag is 10.5 just now so i think you might just be able to see it

[swamp thing]

Hi

The pinwheel Galaxy is very large with very low surface brightness making it a very tricky object to observe for a noob.

Like most Galaxies it doesn't like light pollution and will vanish from view very easily indeed if your site has it.

I observed the supernova myself a couple of weeks ago through my 10" scope but couldn't see the Galaxy at all because the site I was at had LP.

If you get to a dark site you are looking for a slight brighttening of the sky background that will be M101. It is about the size of the Moon.

Regards Steve

[todd8137]

hi TheEli as already said ,i have never seen it from the back garden with my street light,but at the clubs dark sight with the 12" and low power its sooooooooo nice

[matsey]

I've been observing the supernova for the last few weeks (clouds permitting...). In all that time although I've been able to see the supernova easily in my 6" scope, I haven't been able to see the galaxy at all. But then I do live in a very light polluted area, so if you've got good dark skies, you may be luckier than me

[John]

I've seen M51 (assuming you mean that galaxy) as two faint smudges of light on a dark night with my 4" refractor. Any sort of light pollution in the sky and it dissapears though. Not sure how bright the M51 supernova is now though - attention switched to the one in M101 during the summer, which is a harder to see galaxy than M51, in my experience. The supernova in M101 is brighter than the M51 one though.

On a good, dark night, my 10" scope will show spiral structure in M51 although you need to use averted vision to trace it with any clarity. Under really dark skies at the SGL star party a few years back the spiral structure was nice and clear with a 12" and stunning with a 20" that I had a look through the following year !.

[brascoe]

Have you looked at the sketch section on here

Imaging - Sketches and Unconventional - Stargazers Lounge

It will pics etc of what you would expect to see from various scopes like yours

[hemihaggis]

yeah the guys are right about the lp factor , im lucky ,i stay in a fairly dark area , near loudoun hill in east ayrshire , the village has a few pubs and a chip shop ,spar ect , and the nearest big town (kilmarnock_) is 11 miles away . i also use an astronomik lp filter , some nights i think it helps/some nights i think it doesnt lol ,

so where abouts are you eli , ?