M31, M32, M110

[Episkey]

I was looking at these galaxies tonight through my 6" Dob at 48x magnification, but could only see two of them. They both were small, with one slightly brighter than the other. The bigger of the two I saw took up about 1/6 of the FOV. I'm pretty sure I was looking at M32 and M110, but is the Andromeda galaxy really that hard to miss?

[AlexxxAA]

Actually Joey... Im pretty sure that the brighter of the two that you saw was M31. The other smaller one was most likely M32. The andromeda galaxy is a HUGE object to try to capture through the eyepiece. I have an 8" newtonian and i get the same result. The larger of the two shadows that you see is actually only the central core of M31!

[Episkey]

Ahhh, okay! That makes much more sense!

[AlexxxAA]

Glad i could help

im barely getting back into observing myself. I recently discovered that i helps to google some sketch images of other observers to get an idea of what to expect through the eyepiece. Just google "M__ sketch" or "NGC____ sketch". Its usually quite accurate. Just look at the sketch descriptions to see which ones used a similar sized scope as yours.

[Episkey]

Thanks Alex!