First galaxies for me

[WillsF]

Since I purchased my 'scope I've always wanted to collect a galaxy or two. So with clearish skies, the advice to look more upright to eliminate light pollution and the monthly observing guide posted of SGL I decided to go for M81.

Having read how to find objects by star hopping I started on Dubhe and used Stellarium. But for some reason I just couldn't get my angles to match, everything seemed more "upright" in real life. Plus the number of hops suggested using the ocular view of Stellarium was daunting.

More than a few dead ends and trying again from Glausar in Draco, amongst other stars, left me rather disheartened.

On the point of giving up I decided to draw a line between Glausar and the stars in Ursa Major, find the mid point and match up what I could see through the 32mm EP and the stars in around the same spot on Stellarium.

I kept seeing an arrangement of 5 stars I named Evil Smiley Face and a bit to the east of that 3 more stars in a chevron shape that I could finally match up to Stellarium. Walking the view Eastward a couple of more hops, and hang on is that a grey blurry smudge?

Many, many checks later I had become a messier hunting god. I am not 100% convinced but I may have been able to pick out M82 but after 2hrs I think my eyes were starting to play tricks.

Was it the best thing I've ever laid my eyes on? No. But certainly in the top 3 smudges I've ever seen, and definitely worth the 2hrs of hunting for it.

Things what I learnt:

The faint dso's are not going to be immediately obvious, so you do need to work your way to where they should be and have a good look around.

Star hopping is not as straight forward as it seems, particularly if you aren't very good at working out which stars are which. More practice required!

Shorter than 20mm EPs don't help the view, conditions not good enough.

Patience is a virtue.

The bright orange light on the edge of the view is not something new or exciting it is just a reflected street light.

[Double Kick Drum]

Nice work!

M82 should have appeared quite linear as it is virtually side on but is almost as bright as M81.

Once you have your marker stars, that pair become easy to find.

Some other bright galaxies are M64 in Coma Berenices, M94 and M51 in Canes Venatici which are all reasonably easy to find plus a bundle of them in Leo and Virgo.

Happy hunting!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Good for you! M681 and M82 are sometimes tricky to find, sometimes you just stumble upon them. Leo and in particular Virgo are just crawling with these fuzzies. You will have a ball there.

[JamesF]

Good for you! M681 and M82 are sometimes tricky to find, sometimes you just stumble upon them. Leo and in particular Virgo are just crawling with these fuzzies. You will have a ball there.

The problem there is working out which one it is once you've got one in view Star-hopping in reverse (working back from an unknown object to somewhere you recognise so you can tell what it is you were looking at in the first place) can be far from easy, especially when you find more fuzzy objects on the way.

Last winter I spent a happy evening finding Messier object after Messier object in Virgo and had no idea which ones they were. I'd gone looking for one, used the RDF to point the scope in roughly the right direction and saw one of completely the wrong shape pretty much as soon as I looked through the eyepiece so then had to work back. In the end I drew a rough map of their relative positions as best I could (switching right for left) and then compared that to Stellarium to see what I could match up.

James

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The problem there is working out which one it is once you've got one in view Star-hopping in reverse (working back from an unknown object to somewhere you recognise so you can tell what it is you were looking at in the first place) can be far from easy, especially when you find more fuzzy objects on the way.

Last winter I spent a happy evening finding Messier object after Messier object in Virgo and had no idea which ones they were. I'd gone looking for one, used the RDF to point the scope in roughly the right direction and saw one of completely the wrong shape pretty much as soon as I looked through the eyepiece so then had to work back. In the end I drew a rough map of their relative positions as best I could (switching right for left) and then compared that to Stellarium to see what I could match up.

James

Very true. I used to just trawl through Virgo and enjoy the view of up to 8 galaxies in one FOV. Last year I started a systematic search, with the aid of my big 16x70 DIY finder (best bit of new kit). Using a big correct image finder I find it is much easier to find the right star patterns, and search based on non-naked-eye stars. I then logged 77 galaxies in one month (March = galaxy-month for me). Many of those fuzzies I know I have seen before, but I just never logged them. I am curious how many new ones I will find this year (plenty more to find with an 8" scope there).

[acey]

Things what I learnt:

The faint dso's are not going to be immediately obvious, so you do need to work your way to where they should be and have a good look around.

Star hopping is not as straight forward as it seems, particularly if you aren't very good at working out which stars are which. More practice required!

Shorter than 20mm EPs don't help the view, conditions not good enough.

Patience is a virtue.

The bright orange light on the edge of the view is not something new or exciting it is just a reflected street light.

All good advice! (Especially the bits about practice, conditions and patience).