two messiers and a ngc ...26.03.12

[rory]

tonight was clear again,and felt i couldnt waste the chance to get outside.

in keeping with recent nights i went out in search of a few objects recomended by you fellow members,namely ngc4631,3115, and messiers 104 ,106.

out of these i bagged one,m106.

first though ,the galaxy i thought was 106 turned out to be ngc4449, which was an easy on the eye find,small but fairly bright ( as galaxies go ),from there i moved across and located m106. i could use direct vision on this one which made it appear circular,but averted vision gave an elongated appearance ? not sure how that works.

then before packing up i was having a punt on m108. i spent a good 20 to 30 mins staring at the exact space amongst the star patterns,waiting for a glimmer of an appearance. i THINK something was showing a little, but cant claim her this time, i couldnt be sure if my eyes were playing tricks. then there it was m97. i wasnt even looking for it. it decided to make a show. hard to descibe ,faint sphere like i suppose.(i dont have filters) i tried higher magnification on it but it no good. m97 made a square pattern with three surrounding stars,and i confirmed with stellarium. so slowly shifted across again in hope of glimpsing m108....nope.

m104 was a no go from the start with streetlights and houses in the way. also tried the whale galaxy but just couldnt get a show from her either.

all in all over the last two nights,ive been happy with the finds.

but im realising now i most certainly bought the wrong scope for dso's. i wish i knew then what i know now, id have gone for a dob.

clear skies all......

[andrew63]

Well done with M97 with a small telescope - M108 is more difficult - in my 4" they are both in the same field but m108 is more of a faint 'sliver'. Try M104 when it's better placed, i had a look a few hours ago, and low down with a bit of haze it was not much to see - there are a couple of small clusters of stars nearby which is a good guide.

andrew

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice haul! M108 is really tricky. NGC 4449 is on the Caldwell list (no. 21). I find it almost looks like a faint, small version of the Small Magellanic Cloud. A curious, almost box-shaped irregular.

[m_j_lyons]

I had a really hard time with M108 (and M97) until I got a larger dob. Keep at it...one of these nights you'll catch the sliver of light from it. I remember my first observation of M97 was surprising as I didn't expect the nebula to be as bright as it appeared.

Happy hunting.

[Double Kick Drum]

Some nice objects there. There are not many irregular galaxies visible to smaller scopes but NGC 4449 is a nice and reasonably bright one. I found M97 easier than the its reputation suggests.