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I cant find Meissers


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Hi all

Since getting my scope last week I have been lucky enough to get in 3 good clear sky sessions.

I've done pretty well so far lining up the scope and finder, finding and viewing planets and bright stars, tracking stuff as the earth rotates and viewing star fields with the wide angle.

I would love to tick a few items off the Meisser list I have downloaded but I just don't know what I am looking for. Last night SkyEye indicated there were 3 M objects near Mars but I couldn't make anything out either with my 10mm or 25mm EPs.

I am using a 150P Dob with 1200mm fl.

Anybody got any pointers or advice for me??

Cheers

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hi there

I am not sure what the sky was like there but over in the NW of England, the sky was full of moisture and as a result I could not even get very good (visual) images of anything remotely faint even with my 16" dob. The sky quality (and of course light pollution) makes a massive difference to how objects look in the scope so do persevere and next time out you may have more luck.

expect to see a misty star, grey in colour and possibly with a bright core for most galaxies. With more aperture / magnification this will improve the view slightly.

Some open and globular star clusters will be seen in the finder scope.

Galaxies M81 and 82 are easily seen if in the right area, as are M65/66. Also globular cluster M13 is visible now at around midnight in Hercules. M42, the great nebula in Orion is good in all scopes. hope these help a bit.

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In Milton keynes the LP isnt great so finding messier objects is a challenge.

I havent seen the galaxies near Mars yet.

i am slowly ticking them off, but it takes patience and good skys.

try heading out to a darker site (south of Buckingham isnt too far away and the skys are much darker there.

where in MK are you? (out of interest) I am in Furzton.

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The Messiers as with other DSOs are much dimmer than the planets, which you could say is part of the challenge. A 6 inch scope is capable of finding quite a lot given decent skies. I have a 5 inch refractor and have found nearly 130 DSOs to date in a semi-rural sky.

What you will find is the more you locate, the better you will become at deciphering star maps and hopping to objects of interest. Stick at it!

There are quite a few reasonably bright open clusters; M45 the Pleiades in Taurus visible in the West after sunset, M44 the Beehive visible high in the South in the constellation of Cancer, M35 in Gemini and M36 - M37 - M38 all in Auriga which are all high in the sky in the evening.

Two bright globulars are visible now; M3 visible in the evening and M13 as described by Moonshane.

Perhaps a little more difficult are galaxies and nebulae (with the exception of M31 in Andromeda and M42 in Orion) which are usually more diffuse. M81 and M82 are a good starter for ten, M64 in Coma Berenices is quite bright for a galaxy if you can find it as is M94 in Canes Venatici.

Happy hunting!

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The leo triplet near Mars is not an that easy a target for a 150mm scope. I say its not that easy but its not very difficult. I started with a 150mm and found them but it took a little patience, You might just get all three in the FOV. 2 are easier to see than the other. My skies are about 5.7NELM

For beginners, it would be common to have had the galaxies in your FOV but you didn't recognise them. Try finding M81 and M82 first, they are probably the easier M galaxies to find and they are beautiful, it will give you an idea of what to look for..... and expect nearly all the others to be dimmer....if that makes sense.

M13, a GC, is just lovely. No matter how often I go back, it just captivates you. The clearer and darker the skies the better.

This is all experience with a 150mm newt, so the experience should be similar, just the sky will make the difference.

Bart

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When trying to find a 'faint fuzzy' I usually try to find out their brightness before looking. I compare this with other objects that I can see on the night to decide if the hunt is on. For example if a mag8 galaxy is only just discernible, there is no point in looking for mag10/11 objects. This is of course subject to wispy cloud that might be moving, low level haze and the rest.

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Not every Messier object is as bright, obvious or easy to find as others. Some good ones to start with for this time of year would be:

M41 (4 degrees from Sirius)

M42 (in the "sword" below the "belt stars" of Orion)

M35 (near the "foot" of Gemini)

M34 (5 degrees from Algol in Perseus)

Those are all brighter, large-ish Messier objects near brighter stars. Give them a go first; galaxies are harder "M" objects to see / spot at first.

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I must admit I was looking at the Messiers (or trying to) near Mars last night as well as a cluster of them over to the east, but I couldn't see anything either. Yes it was a nice clear night and the seeing was good but couldn't see any. Even though it was clear I did have that unmistakable yellow glow from lp. I knew I was in the right direction as I had google sky set up on my smartphone. Also my scope was programmed with all the right data and was using the monthly sky map out of The Sky At Night. Finally was using Mars as a guide (which incidentally looked great last night). And only having a 5" scope doesn't give much light grasp, but if you suffer from light pollution then all it is going to do is magnify it.

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I too was looking for the galaxies near Mars last night with a 12" Dob

Nothing.

I had to keep coming in and checking Stellarium to make sure I was looking in the right place.

That was the final straw in making me put my "lightbucket" on the astro ads today

Gonna get a large Mak and view the planets instead

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I tried last night and tonight for M95,M96 and M105, all close to Mars, with the Telrad option is Stellarium and a Telrad on the scope it should have been easy, i found nothing, i move across to M51, again using the Telrad and dropped right on top showing 2 misty stars, so i can only think Mars is the problem being to close, plus a moist feel in the air both viewing sessions...??

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It's been clear here tonight but the seeing wasn't great mainly due to high moisture content in the atmosphere with attendant dew problems. Brighter messier objects were ok but the fainter galaxies and nebulae were pretty much washed out by the moisture. Compare that with last Saturday when I was able to pick out lots of faint galaxies and nebulae...

I did get to see comet Garradd though which made up for things :)

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Had quite a clear sky tonight for a while which give excellent detail of Jupiter and mars was remarkable tonight plenty of detail which I was surprise it was reddish orange but could see like darker shades of the planet .

Even with the sky being reasonably clear I still couldn't find any galaxies or nebular and that's with my lp filter but the sky did have quite a lot of low mist which helped the streetlights glow .

However I'm not so good at finding them properly yet I still need to learn how to navigate the sky.

Is there anything that I could get that will assist me when I move the scope it will say I need to move it a few degrees left or right or up down ? I don't really want to spend hundreds getting a goto mount as I would like to learn how to navigate my self.

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Try the book "Turn Left at Orion" which gives you that kind of advice, or Nightwatch, which has easy to use star maps. Be patient. Look down the sword of Orion for the Orion nebula, or up and to the right of Orion for the Pleiades, two easy Messiers. Take the time to learn the constellations and the major stars, they are your guideposts.

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I'm going to have to venture out of the city so I can see the stars better. I'm finding that if I look through the finder scope I see way more stars than the naked eye . I'm going to buy a new finder with a angled viewer for easy finding £59 for correct viewing one.

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Download Stellarium and then go for a Telrad finder, Stellarium is free and has the Telrad circles (Windows Mode then Alt-O) so after a bit of practice i found M51 last night just dropped the Finder where Stellarium showed the DSO and there is was in the FOV, doesn't always happen but it gets quiet close, i prefer this to a GoTo.

Stellarium

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My UHC-S filter arrived this morning... Shame its such a foggy night here in the Rhubarb Triangle. Gutted!

Mind you, I currently only have an area of decking to put the scope on, I'm hoping to build a more solid patio this Spring which should help.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

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So murky out there tonight, when i walked out into the garden i could fill the mist/dew, unable to focus stars with 10X42 Bins, the scope was better but nothing i tried looking at appeared to be there, collimation was perfect on a star test, so clear skys are not all they appear to be sometimes..:)

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M35-M38 tonight, great seeing - at least compared to my only other observing experience of Mon and Weds this week :)

Kids and wife had a look at Jupiter & moons and Venus earlier, and the Mrs even popped out for a squizz after kids were in bed - showed her the Pleiades, pretty non-plussed. You can't please all the people all the time :)

Better seeing or my new Baader Hyperion zoom EP knocks the socks off the TAL plossis.. Bit of both I think. The stars had a lot less naked eye twinkle tonight, I'm assuming that is an indicator of better seeing..?

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