M101 and M109

[jason.p]

Just managed to get M109 and the Pinwheel which completes my Ursa Major targets. M109 was quite faint, but M101 was bigger and brighter than I expected. This was with my 26mm.

(Quite chuffed. Just had to tell someone:rolleyes)

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[tom33pr]

Congrats, well done.

...How does the 26 perform (is your Tal f8)? Would you recommend? Thinking of getting the 24 for my Mak.

[jason.p]

Congrats, well done.

...How does the 26 perform (is your Tal f8)? Would you recommend? Thinking of getting the 24 for my Mak.

Yes the TAL2 is f8. The 26mm Meade 5000 is brilliant. It's the one I use most of the time. In another thread I was saying how I was disappointed with the 8mm when trying to get e bit more mag, and the advice was to go for less mag (around 12mm) would be the way to go to try and pick out more detail in dso's.

Good luck

Jason

[crashtestdummy]

m109 is very faint,infact ive seen mag 12 galaxies that have been easier to detect and it leads me to think its about the hardest to see of the messiers asside from m76.obviously differenty eyes may show up different objects better than others plus im rubvbish with averted vision

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on bagging those two Messiers in UMa. I used to have a 6" F/8 scope, and picked up quite a few non-Messier galaxies in UMa, so I bet there is more for you to pick up there.

[swamp thing]

Nice one Jason M109 & M101 are both tough customers. M101 has the lowest surface brightness of any of the Messier objects, so is particularly tricky. From dark skies it stands out very nicely though and displays some incredible views. M109 doesn't give up much even from good sites. I cannot remember getting much detail even with a 16".

[Scooot]

I saw m101 last night for the first time, helped by a good sky and that it was very high up, almost vertical. (At least I think I did). It was very, very feint, but i'm fairly sure that's what it was. I think that's about the limit of what I can see from my garden if I can count something so feint as seeing it.