Spotting Galaxies

[Ganymede12]

I am yet to see a galaxy and I was wondering if It was my scope or my seeing conditions so what is the smallest a scope can be and still be able to see galaxies such as the whirlpool galaxy?

[swamp thing]

Well you can see the Andromeda Galaxy with your naked eye.

There are many others that are observable through 7x50 bins, so your scope should be able to pick out quite a few.

[John]

I spotted my first galaxies, M81 and M82, with a 60mm refractor. M31 is naked eye visible on a dark night from my back garden.

[DazC]

I spotted the whirlpool galaxy from my back garden a few weeks back with my 130mm and i have a fair bit of lp.

You may have already been looking right at a galaxy and not realisedas they will only look like small grey smudges like a fingerprint on your lens. Once you find one, you'll know what to look for and it becomes easier.

D.C

[acey]

Most important factor is darkness of the sky. If you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye then you'll see the Whirlpool with binoculars. If you can't see Milky Way but can see all the main stars of Ursa Minor (Little Bear) with naked eye then you should be able to see Whirlpool with a small or medium scope. If you can't see all the stars of Ursa Minor then you may not be able to see the Whirlpool with any size scope.

Assuming your sky is dark enough the next most important thing is knowing exactly where to look. Then when you get the right spot be patient because it might not be visible immediately (let your eye adjust).

[RikM]

I can see M51 with my ST80 when the moon is not in the sky. Moonlight really does wash out these faint fuzzies. They do live up to the name even on the best of nights. They are just visible as a faint smudge.

[garethmob]

i think its the lp areas around here ant, iv seen a few m31, m51 but my next challange is m81/m82 which should be visable in bins and if so in your scope. you do have a small scope so a widefield eyepeice would still show a restructed FOV it might be worth scouting for star hopping to find the object you want

when i get another spare few mins i'll add directions to the list i made in the SWV group theres a few galaxys on there which i actually purposely placed for your 70mm and my 60mm astral

[Tinker1947]

It would also be handy if your looking in the right place do you "Star Hop" or use maps, Telrad or any other helpful add-ons...??

[LukeSkywatcher]

Ive seen quite a few with my 90mm scope and 90mm bins. They appeared only as fuzzy patches of grey. In my 130mm scope they become more galaxy in appearance and dust lanes just about started to be visible.

[SFlowers]

We can see M81 and M82 in fairly light polluted skies in our ETX 70, and andromeda in bins though we've only seen it as a fuzzy. In the LXD55 they are awesome and M51 is one of my faves though it depends heavily on how clear and dark it is and what the moon is up to.

[Double Kick Drum]

A 70mm scope should be able to pick a fair few galaxies up so long as your sky isn't too impaired by light pollution.

As well as M31, M51, M81 and M82, you may also want to focus on these;

M64 the Black Eye galaxy (Com)

M105, NGC 3521, NGC 2903, M65 and M66 (Leo)

M49, M60, M61, M84, M86 and M87 (Vir)

M94 and M63 (CVn)

NGC 1023 (Per)

NGC 2841 (UMa)

In 70mm aperture, these won't be bright but will be satisfying to locate.

Happy hunting!

[JimStan]

As others have indicated, you may be expecting too much when you look for a galaxy. Even M31, which is without question, the brightest galaxy, excluding the LMC and SMC in the southern skies, is not going to begin to look like the photographs that you will see here on the forum, unless you have a pretty big pair of binocs, or a richest-field telescope! "Faint Fuzzies", indeed !

Jim S.

[earth titan]

I used to find the whirlpool one of the more difficult to find. The ones in Leo are far easier.

[assasincz]

Try looking for Bode's nebulae, M81+M82 in UMa, you should be able to see those with your scope pretty good.

[chiltonstar]

Messier found most of his objects with a small refractor (3"); given good seeing, you should be able to see most of the M galaxies. In the classic book "The Messier Album", there is a visual description of each object as seen with a small refractor (4").

Clear skies!

Chris

[petermarknimmo]

Try m31 to give you an idea of what to look for. In many cases look for a bright core surrounded by a small greyish smudge ( I say many because of galaxies like triangulum, which has no distinct core).

[Ganymede12]

Thanks for the info! I've printed off a list of the 110 messier objects which should help me locate them or at least know what to look for.

[swamp thing]

When hunting down Galaxies try locating the ones with the highest surface brightness that are highest in the sky first.

At the present time of year the ones in Ursa Major and Canes Venatici are very well placed.

[rory]

have to agree with others, m81/82 are amongst the brightest visually. i found them to be bright in my 90mm refractor under town skies. m106 i also found to be reasonable in a small scope.

[Scott]

This link will tell you whats available and when and an idea of how easy they are to see. Hope it helps

http://bristolweather.org.uk/astronomy/listm.html

[Ganymede12]

Thanks for the link auspom!

[acey]

This site also has lots of Messier info:

http://messier.seds.org/Messier.html