Galaxy hunt

[Andrew]

Got out for a couple of hours last night from 12 till 2. The sky was very clear. Normal limiting mag is about 5 at best. Don't know what it was last night (maybe 5.5 in the darkest part of the sky) but there must have been hundreds of stars visible that are not usually seen. I had been hoping to see an improvement in contrast due to having just flocked the upper part of my OTA. However, given the improved sky it's hard to know what effect the flocking had.

Started with a look at some globulars: M3, M53, M13. Seeing was pretty good but not perfect. Tried M13 at powers up to x300 but views were sharpest at x150 - x200. Pretty spectacular views with several hundread stars resolved, but still no propeller (Astroman).

Then moved on to some galaxies. Spent a long time on M51 and really saw some benefits from the darker sky (or flocking). Could see two spiral arms . Previously I'd only seen the brightest patches in these on either side of the core, but last night they were more complete. Still faint of course, but definitely visible.

Next up was the Virgo/Coma border. Swept up about 25-30 galaxies including 10 Messiers and 12 in and around Markarian's chain. No significant detail in these but the majority were pretty bright. Finished up with a look at M81 and M82. Having spent the past hour in the Virgo cluster this pair seemed both huge and extremely bright - It's a shame the Virgo cluster isn't at a similar distance (five times closer). That would make it really spectacular.

[dazza1639]

Nice report. It was a really clear night last night wasn't it

Darren

[proflight2000]

Sounds like you had a pretty good night, suprised me too over the last couple of nights, I have actually been able to see things id normally hunt around for with my scope but with just my eyes or a pair of binoculars. I really envy these people who have such dark skys a lot of it is basically seeable anyway, well within reason.

[Andrew]

Yes - I was surprised that I could see several galazies through the finderscope that are usually not obvious

[Vega]

Nice one Andrew. Thank goodness for M81/M82 otherwise I wouldn't know what a galaxy looked like with my trusty 120mm frac.

Matt

[Astroman]

The propeller needs a good, dark sky and as much magnification as you can stand. 150X - 200x should be enough. It also takes some patience for your eye to adapt to the contrast between where the stars are and where the stars are not. You'll get it, just keep at it! 8)

[Andrew]

Just got in after another night of observing. Finished with 20 minutes or so looking at M13 and have finally managed to find the propeller

Made a quick sketch and have compared this with some photos to be certain

[Astroman]

WooHoo!!

[Andrew]

Exactly how I felt!

I intend to have a go at sketching it properly when it gets a little higher