'Brightest' DSO's?

[knobby]

Well done... So when you ordering the 10 "?

[ollypenrice]

The Andromeda galaxy is nothing to write home about visually. Dont get hung up on observing it. Its not that special.

There are so many other galaxies out there that really do impress: Sombrero,Black Eye,Whirlpool, Leo triplet........

From light pollution I agree. But I've been looking at M31 tonight naked eye, in 8x42 bins and in a 20 inch light bucket. It's mighty. It spooks me every time. The sheer scale of it is boggling. The dust lanes. The satellites. Arrrgghhh!!!

I think that M42 and M31 are, indeed, the brightest of the real DSOs so I suslpect the OP needs a darker site.

Olly

[umadog]

I agree: M31 is a spectacular sight in any aperture from a dark location. With a rich-field frac at low power you get to see it in the context of the surrounding star field. With a large Dob you get to pan around and soak in the detail. From a really dark site, M32 looks brighter and more impressive than M31 does from a city location: that's when the magic happens.

The high surface brightness of M81 and M82 may make them easier than M31. Similarly, M27 and M57 have high surface brightness and punch through light pollution effectively. Some nutter has even taken a photo of M57 *in daylight* with a Malincam: http://mallincam.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/m57dayfinal3w.jpg