M1 tips

[miguel87]

I am determined to find M1 tonight, however i have given up on 2 previous occassions. Is it a particularly small object?

Mike

[Double Kick Drum]

M1 shouldn't need much magnification as it is not as small as many planetary nebulae, for example. A 20 or 25mm eyepiece will suffice.

If you are trying to find it from Solihull, I might suggest you will struggle. It has a low surface brightness and needs semi-rural skies or better and decent transparency to be seen well.

[miguel87]

Thanks for the advice, M1 might be a bit optomistic. I haven't had my scope long, i've found all the 'easiest' objects e.g m42 m31 m45, m81 m82, beehive, planets etc but am struggling to find new things to look at.

Any suggestions?

[rory]

as dkd says, its tough going in light polluted area's. i tried and failed half a dowzen times. funny thing is once youve seen it, it seems easier to find the next time. if the moons up id say forget it ,combined with the l/p .

as for its appearance. i found in my small refractor it's quite small faint grey smear.

now for my penny's worth, the best things ive seen so far were the ring nebula and dumbell nebula,nice bright fairly easy objects that made me say "wow" out loud. globular clusters are nice little challenges.

[John]

A UHC filter enhances the contrast of M1 (along with other nebulae) and can make it a little easier to find. Under light polluted skies it can be a so and so to spot even with larger scopes though.

[perrin6]

Using a low power, find it's exact location in relation to the stars and move your eye around the field of view, don't look at the exact spot. Faint objects are best seen with averted vision ie looking to one side of it because the rods in outskirts of your retina are more sensitive than the cones in the centre of your eye.

It helps to learn the field of view size of your low power eyepiece and what a star of about 7th magnitude looks like, then you can relate the starfield on the starmap to the view in the eyepiece.

[laser_jock99]

I have glimpsed M1 with a 60mm refractor under darker skies (milk way visible) but I'm sure I would struggle with a 60mm these days. I reckon a 100mm would be needed at least from my garden in Leamington now. I have recently photographed M1 with a 150mm refractor and I thought to myself how small an object it was. Might be difficult to find under light polluted skies?

[Double Kick Drum]

A few objects worth going for;

Open clusters: M35 (Gemini), M36, M37 and M38 (all Auriga)

Globular clusters: M3 (Canes Venatici), M5 (Serpens), M13 and M92 (Hercules)

Planetary nebulae: M57 the Ring nebula (Lyra) and NGC 2392 the Eskimo nebula (Gemini)

Galaxies: M51 and M94 (Canes Venatici), M64 (Coma Berenices), M65 and M66 (Leo) and NGC 2841 (Ursa Major) are some that may be tolerant of light polluted skies.

Happy hunting!

[Mr Q]

I am amazed at the trouble you folks in the U.K. have in finding such an easy object...well, easy with fairly dark skies that is. Since it's a fairly faint object, it does need fairly dark sky to detect so being in the U.K. does cause problems with observing (finding) it.

Being within one LP field of the bright star of the Bull's lower "horn end" and to its slightly upper right, it should be easy to spot as a faint small smudge but any moderate light pollution may hide it.

I have detected it with a visual limiting magnitude of only 4.0 and found it and observed it as a faint patch with a full moon out. So the sky condition is a major factor in detecting it. Like most elusive DSOs, once you do find it, it will be much easier the next few times so don't give up! If you look to the right of the pilot star next to it with that star just out of view on LP, you should find it within a few seconds. If not, don't waste time and try again on another night. Spending too much time trying to see (any DSO) it will only cause frustration so if you don't find it within a minute or so, try again when the sky offers better transparency.

I spent several nights looking for it for the first time and once seen (found), it was such an easy object to find and observe thereafter.

[Double Kick Drum]

I am amazed at the trouble you folks in the U.K. have in finding such an easy object...well, easy with fairly dark skies that is. Since it's a fairly faint object, it does need fairly dark sky to detect so being in the U.K. does cause problems with observing (finding) it.

Being within one LP field of the bright star of the Bull's lower "horn end" and to its slightly upper right, it should be easy to spot as a faint small smudge but any moderate light pollution may hide it.

I have detected it with a visual limiting magnitude of only 4.0 and found it and observed it as a faint patch with a full moon out. So the sky condition is a major factor in detecting it. Like most elusive DSOs, once you do find it, it will be much easier the next few times so don't give up! If you look to the right of the pilot star next to it with that star just out of view on LP, you should find it within a few seconds. If not, don't waste time and try again on another night. Spending too much time trying to see (any DSO) it will only cause frustration so if you don't find it within a minute or so, try again when the sky offers better transparency.

I spent several nights looking for it for the first time and once seen (found), it was such an easy object to find and observe thereafter.

I have spotted it a couple of times but never with a VLM of anywhere near as low as 4.0. To be honest, I found M97 the Owl nebula easier and that one had much more of a difficult reputation and a recorded magnitude of 11.

Agree with your advice though. It's easy to locate, so if you cannot see it, move on.

[patomlin76]

I found it on the fourth attempt, but far fainter than I thought it was... A squarish smudge is what I would describe it as, with averted vision on a moonless night. It wouldn't take much to hide it. I actually located it with my 25mm and just tapped the ota every now and then which made it jump into view...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jasonbirder]

Think you might struggle to find it for a while now because of the moon which will really wash it out.

I have moderate light pollution in my suburban back garden but have seen it a couple of times from here...so shouldn't be too tricky for you - not a difficult object to find, just north of Zeta Taurus, good directions in Turn Left at Orion - I find it by centering my finder on Zeta Taurus, then a nudge north till I can see two fainter stars that make up an equilateral triangle with Zeta - M1 is just to the west of that triangle, it looks like a tiny oblong wisp of smoke in my SW200P

[Episkey]

I've managed to just barely spot it with averted vision under suburban skies with my 6 inch Dob on my third attempt. I used lower power (48x) and it was just a small, slightly elongated fuzz. This was around new moon, and with the moon getting bigger by the day now, I wouldn't bother trying.