What Other Galaxies is there out there for me to gaze at?

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

Hi all,

Being relatively new to this hobby, What should I try and find in the night sky? I am loving Orion at the moment as he is so tall and mighty. Not forgetting his lovely sword. I know Triangulum and Andromeda are also within the same kind of area ish but the time of year might not be right for me to see Andromeda just yet.. But what other Galaxies is there for me to hunt down in that same kind of area. Also what planets are about as I have only been concentrating on Jupiter and our one moon to date over long period's of time that is.

Thanks again for helping out a newbie, Using a Astromaster 130EQMD for starters but not used the MD for anything yet think it's mostly used in astrophotography. And I have finally got my nice big Orion 9*50 view finder firmly screwed onto the scope now to help me locate objects better at last. Software I'm using for referencing is "TheSky X FirstLight Edition" Came with scope set up.

Thanks,

Mr Gaza.

[Double Kick Drum]

We are at the beginning of galaxy season right now.

The best constellations to look at are Ursa Major, Leo, Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices and Virgo. I would suggest buying "Turn Left at Orion" which will give you many galactic targets and manage your expectations about what you will actually see.

Pick of the galaxies are M81 and M82. A pair in the same field of view in the North of Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

Happy hunting!

[ronin]

Get something that gives a good diagram of the constellations then go enter "list of messier objects" into google and go to the wikipedia entry.

That gives a nice table of messier objects and click at the top of the column titled Type.

That will group all the galaxies together, they all have the same background colour.

That give all the galaxies identified by Messier.

Then read off the constellation they are in and go find them if the constellation is visible.

I use The Monthly Sky Guide for the constellations and it also identifies the positions of the messiers in that constellation.

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

We are at the beginning of galaxy season right now.

The best constellations to look at are Ursa Major, Leo, Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices and Virgo. I would suggest buying "Turn Left at Orion" which will give you many galactic targets and manage your expectations about what you will actually see.

Pick of the galaxies are M81 and M82. A pair in the same field of view in the North of Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

Happy hunting!

Hi all,

Thanks for the response so far. See I never even new there was a right time of year for viewing Galaxies. The soft ware I use The Sky x First Light Has options for locating all sorts. But i'm not quite so good at remembering where they or what's good to look at right now. Must print info out. I also have a good hard aware referencing tool being The Astro Box. Good thing for beginners as it has a Planisphere, Star Chart, Star Finder and useful book on how to use you'r telescope and what to upgrade and what types of scopes are out there.

But it's quite challenging for a newbie to try to learn all the constellations and the likes even just for the month you are in. But in time it will come am sure. This is why i thought it be a idea to ask you lot and pinpoint a few good starting points in the sky, instead of going for the obvious all the time. Am I right in thinking those M81&M82 are siblings from the milky-way? Sorry if it seams a sillly'ish question to you.

For shot viewings I just get out the bins at the moment if it looks like it's not worth while setting the scope up for viewing. Got 25*70 (on a tripod pod)bins i fined quite useful indeed.

P.S With my scope would it show up a double star with a 5mm eyepiece or even a 10mm?

Regards,

MrGaza.

[fredster]

Hi all,

Thanks for the response so far. See I never even new there was a right time of year for viewing Galaxies. The soft ware I use The Sky x First Light Has options for locating all sorts. But i'm not quite so good at remembering where they or what's good to look at right now. Must print info out. I also have a good hard aware referencing tool being The Astro Box. Good thing for beginners as it has a Planisphere, Star Chart, Star Finder and useful book on how to use you'r telescope and what to upgrade and what types of scopes are out there.

But it's quite challenging for a newbie to try to learn all the constellations and the likes even just for the month you are in. But in time it will come am sure. This is why i thought it be a idea to ask you lot and pinpoint a few good starting points in the sky, instead of going for the obvious all the time. Am I right in thinking those M81&M82 are siblings from the milky-way? Sorry if it seams a sillly'ish question to you.

For shot viewings I just get out the bins at the moment if it looks like it's not worth while setting the scope up for viewing. Got 25*70 (on a tripod pod)bins i fined quite useful indeed.

P.S With my scope would it show up a double star with a 5mm eyepiece or even a 10mm?

Regards,

MrGaza.

M81/M82 are not part of our 'local group' of galaxies but we are all part of the Virgo Super Cluster of galaxies. There's some cracking galaxies to see around the Ursa Major and Leo region. Some more nice pairings as well under dark skies. Even a triplet group of galaxies all crammed into the eyepiece, they are called the Leo triplet. But you need a good dark sky to spot the third galaxy.

Turn Left at Orion is a big help to start. You'll also find some good charts here:

http://binocularsky.com/

Don't worry that it would appear to be for binoculars, the charts are applicable to a telescope and are very good.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

As others have said there are plenty of galaxies in range of your scope. Stellarium is a very handy free tool to orient yourself: http://www.stellarium.org/

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

So glad to have joined this forum now as I don't feel like a lost sole any more with my new hobby. And it's good to hear I will be able to bag a good few Galaxies with my scope. Some how I was quiet worried for a time the scope wont have enough light gathering power for deep sky viewings. Just need clear sky's again, please clear up cloud's please clear up!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

130mm is fine (bigger is better for really distant stuff, of course). The advantage of a smaller scope is that it can see a lot more of the sky in a single FOV. Some of my best views of DSOs were with the 80mm refractor I have. Even binoculars are great for wide field views.

Do not forget, if your pupil dilates to 6.5mm, your 130mm collects 400x more light. That is quite a bit!

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

130mm is fine (bigger is better for really distant stuff, of course). The advantage of a smaller scope is that it can see a lot more of the sky in a single FOV. Some of my best views of DSOs were with the 80mm refractor I have. Even binoculars are great for wide field views.

Do not forget, if your pupil dilates to 6.5mm, your 130mm collects 400x more light. That is quite a bit!

Em How can you tell if you'r pupil's dilates or is that just a natural progress of being in a darkened atmosphere?

[John]

Em How can you tell if you'r pupil's dilates or is that just a natural progress of being in a darkened atmosphere?

As the light gets dimmer, your pupil dilates (expands). It's an instinctive thing. As you get older the maximum dilation gets a little smaller. I'm 53 years old so my max is probably around 5mm. When I was 20 it may have been 1mm or so larger.

The point Michael was making is that, even when your pupils are fully dilated, your eyes have a max aperture of, say, 6.5mm. Your scope has an aperture of 130mm which has a light collecting area around 400x as much as your fully dilated pupil has. Thats a lot more light !

Just to reassure you further, I saw my first galaxies (m81 and m82) with a 60mm aperture scope. My 102mm scope has shown lots of galaxies. 130mm is certainly capable of showing lots of galaxies. Most will appear as very faint patches of light though.

[Double Kick Drum]

Just to reassure you further, I saw my first galaxies (m81 and m82) with a 60mm aperture scope. My 102mm scope has shown lots of galaxies. 130mm is certainly capable of showing lots of galaxies. Most will appear as very faint patches of light though.

Just to quantify that. I live in a semi-rural area and have a 127mm refractor and my galaxy count is up to over 140 and there are still quite a few more that my set up is capable of. Typically you are observing the level of density of haziness, size and shape and many are on the very edge of what your eye can pick up but I think that is part of the challenge.

M81 and M82 are two of the finest but other good views are M104 (the Sombrero galaxy), NGC 4631 (the Whale galaxy), NGC 4565 (the Needle galaxy), M65 and M66 (part of the Leo triplet), M64 (the Black Eye galaxy), M94 and simply working your way through Virgo / Coma Berenices and stumbling on a whole heap of them all close together (Mankarian's chain in particular).

Happy hunting!