Just checking something

[Dazzio]

Hey people's of SGL, I haven't been around for a while. Anyhow, I've been given a SkyWatcher 200P Dob for Christmas. Been given it early cause it's a huge ******!! I had a chance to use it on Tuesday night, I won't bother with a First Light report as I've seen loads of them and I only had 30-40 minutes to use it, so not really worth calling it real First Light.

What I wanted to ask was, I was looking for M42 as I've seen that on my old scope (an 3" Newtonian). I found Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka with no problems, ironically enough in the actual scope not the finderscope. I went down south from Alnilam and found a grey "fuzzie" with two sets of 3 stars in a line. Am I right in thinking this is M42? Because it looks nothing like the first time I saw it, which pardon my technical description looked like a grey "blob". Kinda looked like a banana... I'm pretty sure it is M42, but it looked different and I was very tired too, so just checking. You may call me an idiot now

Dazz

[spaceboy]

Yes this would be M42 given the description.

[Dazzio]

Thought as much, thank you, spaceboy for the reply

Dazz

[Telrad]

It sounds as though you located it, although this 'map' might help:

[Admiral Crispy]

Sounds like M42. Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, upgrading scopes can drastically change the appearance of an object. M42 in my 5" reflector looks like a faint banana shape like you described, but in my 10" Dob it looks more like an eagle, with a faint set of wings and a brighter head. If I had not checked stellarium, I'm sure I would have thought M43 (just below) was M42, or the nebulous region below even that!

[Dazzio]

It does look completely different to what I saw in my 3". Which looked kinda like all of the photos of it, but in the dob it looked like a banana with 6 distinct stars in it. Glad I managed to find something tho thank you for the help

Dazz