Frustrated messier beginner

[Mez7000]

Beleive it or not M13 has been one of my worst Messier objects to find and when I did find it I wasnt convinced that it was M13, not until I observed it through a 10" Dob that I ticked it off my list!

I've sorted my Messier list in to categories, globs, open clusters etc, and the best times to view (did this a few weeks back nothing else to do with all the cloud!), this I think is a nice way to get through the easier stuff before finding galaxies and I also use the "Ultimate Messier object list" http://www.davidpaulgreen.com/tumol.html - a nice bit of software where you can log your observations and object has a photo against each, theres also a PDF version http://www.1america.com/astronomy/pdf/messier_ref.pdf

At the moment I'm struggling with M78 and cannot decide whether I can tick of M43 when looking at M42 at low mag!

[JamesF]

Beleive it or not M13 has been one of my worst Messier objects to find and when I did find it I wasnt convinced that it was M13, not until I observed it through a 10" Dob that I ticked it off my list!

M13 with a 10" dob is an absolute jaw-dropper

James

[Khw]

Thanks mez7000, just had a quick look at the website on me iPad and im sure I can't go wrong using the instructions. Will download it to my pc later, thanks again, kev

[Mez7000]

M13 with a 10" dob is an absolute jaw-dropper

James

Was most definately better view than through my SW 130!

I cheated with M1 though, nabbed that one through the 20" dob at Kielder and even then it was a toughy!

[crashtestdummy]

I think you mean M32 - The Andromeda galaxy ...M33 is a very large and faint spiral galaxy with a low surface brightness so I wouldnt class it as an easy Messier object.

obviously you mean M31 as the andromeda galaxy,M32 is a satelite of andromeda.M33 is triangulum and its a toughy and i found easier in bino's

[Astralstroll]

Another tick for M13. Awesome sight in a 10" dob. With a lot of diligence, and some help from setting circles you can see a lot of DSOs. I'm upto about 60 Messiers at the moment, and a night when I spotted about 25 new ones. Some of them are very dim and a lot of averted vision and patience is needed. Having said that, a lot of them are good objects.

Dave.

[Chihlidog]

Argh. Actually I meant M13, was just typing fast and didnt realize till now that I had typed 33. I found M13 much easier than any galaxy I've observed. M92 as well.