Nailed my first Messier

[Cartman]

It was a very clear night in eastern Belgium last night, so I decided to put my gear in my sister's backyard (on top of a hill with allmoast completely free view from NE to W).

This was basically my first real attempt to look for familiar objects. I got my scope about a month ago and spent my time mostly on getting to know how to work with the equipement. Yesterday, I was determined to go for my first Messier, M31.

I noticed that I'm getting better at navigating around the sky. I started with Saturn before it set (seen it before, but I like it as a starting point), then moved around the N - E sky. Learned my way around in the N to E and starting from the great square and Alfa Andromeda, I moved left. After some searching, a little white smudge appeared in the finderscope, M31. Through the eyepiece, it looked better through a 29mm then through the 9mm wide. No real shape was visible, more an oval blur with light radiating from it. The first Messier has been nailed! And all of that with the help of Turn Left At Orion and a 12€ pocket guide from the Dutch tourist association :-)

Also studied Casseiopeia's main stars, Ursa Minor and Polaris (funny how it doesn't move position in the eyepiece), and the rest of Andromeda. I'm getting pretty confident in navigating through that part of the sky now... A much better hobby than lying on the couch watching the TV like most of my friends do after work :-)

Extras: two shooting stars, a bright flash in the N sky (unidentified, happened too fast but definately not an aircraft) and two unidentified satellites passing in the FOV.

PS: if you have suggestions and/or see that I'm doing stuff wrong, feel free to say so. I'm still a n00b who needs to learn a lot :-)

[Double Kick Drum]

Congratulations on bagging your first galaxy / Messier.

There's plenty more up there to be discovered.

Clear skies!

[andrew63]

yes great to see your first galaxy - might not be much to look at but think what you are seeing...

andrew

[Naemeth]

Congrats! I believe M31 was first for me too, yes they should look like smudges (or at least they do in my scope). The bigger the aperture of your scope, the brighter they will be.

[cotterless45]

Ace, we lived outside Ieper years ago, very dark. Plenty more to see with autumn coming in.

Nick.

[webboid]

Well done on bagging your first Messier

Another great sight is M13 in Hercules & fairly easy to find

Happy hunting

[Mike73]

Congrats on the first Messier, plenty more where that came from!

[wired2moon]

Well done... and of course knowing that you're actually looking at Andromeda as it was 2.5 million years ago makes the smudge all the more fascinating

[Cartman]

I know that M31 is just the tip of the iceberg. But I'm taking my time to learn to navigate around that big sky. This is even more exciting than I first thought.

And while I say "smudge", I do realize how impressive this all is and how humble we should be when we look at one of nature's most impressive pieces of art.

[TractionMan]

Congratulations! Great fun when you find what you're looking for right?

[Cartman]

The chase is better than the catch...

Until you find the object you're looking for :-)