first messier object

[mark.of.andromeda]

saw my first messier object last night globular cluster m13 and omg what a sight.

the seeing wasn't perfect but still pretty good plus have to get used to looking through the eyepiece right but could make it out pretty well.

never seen anything like that before then again with the tasco scope i had years ago don't think you would have seen the end of my street with it

anyone remember thier first messier object

[geppetto]

Nice one, M13 is a real beauty.

My first was M57 ring nebula because it was easy to find

[stargazer1980]

mine was M42 also cos its easy to find

[Cloudwatcher]

M42 for me also. Must be the easiest of them all.

[Kain]

M13 was mine, it was a blusih haze through the tasco!

Kain

[mark.of.andromeda]

will have a look at m42 when i get the chance.

don't even think i saw bluish haze through my tasco the moon looked pretty good through it though

[stargazer1980]

you wont be able to see M42 now as its the wrong time of the year mate! Youll see it in the winter whe you can see orions belt again!

[mark.of.andromeda]

yeah i know thats what i meant when i said when i get the chance didn't word it right should have said when its viewable again

[John]

My 1st Messier was M42 through my 60mm Tasco refractor. To start with I was using the awful 12.5 mm hygenian eypiece that came with the scope so I could only really see the central region (the fish's mouth I think it's called) with the Trapezium at one end of the "mouth"). I then scavenged a kellner eyepiece from an old pair of binoculars which had a much wider field of view and lower power so I could see the whole nebula fanning out. A wonderful sight even in a humble 60mm refractor.

Having got hooked on DSO's (a very smart thing to do when you own a 60mm refractor ) I then hunted down a number of open clusters in the Orion / Canis Major / Monocerous region and then went for galaxies - a big challenge with 60mm !. I actually managed to find M81 and M82 before I saw M31 due to the time of year. It was a huge thrill to think that the light that was hitting my eye down my little scope had travelled for nearly 12 million years through space :shock:.

My experiences with the 60mm (which I still own) made me interested in the challenge of finding DSO's with relatively small scopes which I continue today with my ED80 despite the challenges of light pollution.

John