M33, a first.

[Paul M]

So I'm up in a caravan rural Cumbria trying to follow the excitement of Ison's passage with only a 3g dongle in my cheap Chinese tablet.

That 500Mb allowance is getting some hammer.

So I took a break to see if the solid overcast had dispersed.

And it had, mostly. The milky way arched almost from horizon to horizon.

I grabbed my 10x50's and had a quick look for Comet Lovejoy. I have a great northerly horizon from the caravan decking but that's the only direction I get light pollution as I'm looking directly towards Penrith. Anyway, there was a band of cloud right where I didn't want it. So no Lovejoy.

M31 was easy naked eye so thought I'd have a look for M33, something I've tried many times to find and failed. But that was from my light polluted back yard.

This time I nearly fell over it. Quite easy and obvious in the bins.

There was clearly some shape to it but I as my eyes got better dark adapted high clouds slid in and ended by session.

I really need to get my old 6in Newtonian up here sooner rather than later!

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[swamp thing]

Nice one

M33 can reward plenty from really dark skies, showing amazing detail, from LP locations.....nothing much at all.

[cotterless45]

Yep, whatever gear you use there's no beating a really decent dark sky. Some absolutely amazing detail to M33 with a bit of aperture,

Nick.

[Paul M]

I was actually surprised at how easy it was last night. Not the best conditions by far.

I call this my dark sky site but we aren't usually here over winter. This year though we decided to toughen up a bit.

I noticed two things last night: at this time of year the lights of Penrith appeared a lot brighter on the horizon. I had to position myself so as to prevent seeing the direct glare of lights. I put this down to the the trees and hedges in the intervening 5 miles being bare of leaves.

And secondly, the site owner has installed a floodlight to the rear of a holiday letting just off site to my NE. No direct glare but the trees are lit up plenty. Another not-so-dark direction for me

On the bright side (funny!), talking to villagers last night they were saying about their reduced number of street lights. There never were many but we now need a torch for the walk to the pub.

It seems that a number of street lights were mounted of telegraph poles. BT don't like that and have been slowly removing them.

The village isn't in any rush to replace them

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[dick_dangerous]

M33 is great isn't it? Elusive as anything until you go somewhere properly dark and suddenly it's this massive, obvious galaxy... I'm going to attempt it from London, possibly tomorrow night. I expect I won't manage it, but it'll be an interesting challenge. Having seen how easy it was from Exmoor, I want to see what the locale looks like in the depths of the light pollution!

DD

[Moonshane]

nice one. I think in light polluted areas this is one object that's easier in bins than in a scope. in my scopes I tend to 'see through it' but at dark sites it's an amazing object. I have just seen it from home with my 7x36 bins with averted vision.

[Paul M]

Just come back in from an nice hour out with the bins.

Nice clear sky here in rural Cumbria hire

Went straight to M33, plain as day! I'm wondering if I'll now be able to locate it from my more light polluted home base.

Lovejoy is circumpolar although a little spoiled by the glow of Penrith.

I'm thinking it would be still naked eye in a really dark sky.

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