Spotted first DSO tonight too (I believe)

[dark_marc]

Fifth night and still looking for M27...still have not found it.

Came home at about 23:30 tonight and found an almost flawless dark sky above me. So took out the dob and started hunting down M27. This time I found the Arrow w/o any problems even with the naked eye whilst getting used to the darkness. However still could not find M27.

So moved the Dob around pointing towards Cassiopeia. Then moved swiftly down from Schedir and spotted what I was looking for but whats usually hidden behind my neighbors garage - a milky-blurry lump in the sky a.k.a. Andromeda Galaxy. Followed it for a couple of minutes hoping visibility is getting any better but unfortunately it didnt. Should really invest into an UHC filter soon.

Anyway, had my first real Deepsky experience. Unfortunately before I could end the night by having the mandatory look at Saturn the clouds did move in with impressive speed and ended my star trek after only 45 mins of gazing.

Good night!

[swamp thing]

Congrats on your first Galaxy.

Unfortunately an UHC filter will not help on galaxies. The only thing that helps with galaxies is getting to dark skies. Galaxies emit light right across the spectrum, so filtering them means blocking their light too. So filters will make them worse. Unless you are hunting for a galaxy with bright HII regions like M33. On M33 nebula filters can help see the extragalactic nebulae embedded within it. This is kinda cool, but the rest of the galaxy fades away when the filter is used.

[DirkSteele]

Congratulations! Have another crack a M27. It sounds like you are almost there. And perhaps consider M57 (the ring Nebula) in Lyra as the next planetary nebula target. Sandwiched between the bottom two stars of the celestial harp (Sheliak and Sulafat, or Beta and Gamma Lyrae if you prefer) it is fairly straight forward to find. Just use a reasonable amount of magnification (say 80-100x) to make sure the little smoke ring in the sky stands out.

As Steve says, UHC will only really work for emission nebula which includes planetary nebula like M27 and M57 and larger nebula like M42 and M8 but don't let that put you off trying to find them without one. I have seen all these objects with a 4" aperture from heavily light polluted central London.

Clear skies,

[Daniel-K]

as steve says dark skys are the best for galaxy's. my last trip to a dark sky was with MR10" DOBBY and a 24mm TV panoptic and had 17 galaxy's in the FOV nebula filters have worked a treat for me from my LP garden in liverpool

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on M31. If you find it again, look out for M32 and M110 close by (they are much smaller, but not that difficult).

[AndyWB]

+1 for M57. Personally, I find it much easier than M27; smaller, but brighter, and Sheliak and Sulafat are normally just about visible to me, so pretty easy to find

[faulksy]

congrats on m31 that's low in the sky at the moment, got no chance from here

[Astro Imp]

Well done, a real thrill when you find your first DSO.

[Qualia]

Good stuff, Marc.

[RogerTheDodger]

Another +1 for M57, very visible for your dob

[cotterless45]

My first ones were M36, M37 and M37 . I'll never forget the excitement of reading about them, then finding them through the scope.

Here's looking forward to dark and

clear skies,

Nick.