Help with identifying target...

[Unicronicus]

Whilst out star gazing last night, we tried to catch a sneak peak of Andromeda as it was starting to rise from above the trees at circa midnight. My mate was looking through the eyepiece whilst I was panning around the sky with the misted up star pointer to where I though M31 should be. In the process of searching for M31 my mate said 'Stop!' Because something of interest had come into view. Now, we don't think it was M31 because it was no brighter than Bodes and it was not as big, so what could it have been? We panned around quite vigoursly around that area because if it was M110, surely M31 will be close by and easily visible! But it was all by itself... Upon squinting and looking at our star map in a bit more detail, we came to the conclusion that M31 must have been further down than we originally thought, and that the area we were looking in must be that of a variable star HIP2900, but would a star look like a nebula (or even a globular cluster)? Any clues on what we could have seen in that area of the sky?

[cotterless45]

Sounds like M31. Under dark skies this can look quite ghostly and spectacular .

Some binary stars at x200 can look at bit nebulous, but not globular.

What scope / ep were you using ?

Nick.

[Unicronicus]

Sounds like M31. Under dark skies this can look quite ghostly and spectacular .

Some binary stars at x200 can look at bit nebulous, but not globular.

What scope / ep were you using ?

Nick.

Skywatcher 130p scope with NED8 EP. Thing is though, the cigar galaxy last night looked about the same brightness and bigger. I would have thought M31 would be twice the size...

[Owmuchonomy]

M31 is huge. It is the equivalent dia of 6 full moons. It just fits onto my sensor through my 300mm lens (equiv FOV) of a 480mm. I doubt it was M31 you saw as it is very obvious. Have you checked on Stellarium or Sky Safari for possible objects?

[Unicronicus]

You know what, looking at some amateur pics of M31 I think that was what we were seeing... I was expecting more of a disc shape, a bit like the cigar galaxy, but it just looked like a blob last night, hence why I thought it could have been M110 but that is very faint for our scope...

[Unicronicus]

M31 is huge. It is the equivalent dia of 6 full moons. It just fits onto my sensor through my 300mm lens (equiv FOV) of a 480mm. I doubt it was M31 you saw as it is very obvious. Have you checked on Stellarium or Sky Safari for possible objects?

Yeah, checked stellarium and nothing looked like what we saw...

[Owmuchonomy]

You know what, looking at some amateur pics of M31 I think that was what we were seeing... I was expecting more of a disc shape, a bit like the cigar galaxy, but it just looked like a blob last night, hence why I thought it could have been M110 but that is very faint for our scope...

What you see through your scope tends to be nothing like the pictures. Through my scope I can only pick up the core which is bright enough for my skies and slow scope (F10). If you've got binocs try the same object and see if more of its scale is revealed.

[Moonshane]

if he saw M31 in the finder it would be big and obvious (relatively speaking). M32 and M110 not so much and M33 is a possibility but would not be so bright. did you see Bodes in the finder? it is possible to do so from dark skies in a 9x50. it seems like you were using 81x assuming an 8mm eyepiece. you'd be better with your widest eyepiece and then you may see the three galaxies (M31/32/110)  in the same field.

[ronin]

With that scope and eyepiece you would only have seen a very small bit of M31 and it was likely just the central core. So a bit globular like.

You view would have been about 0.75 of a degree, M31 is 3 degrees so the combination would pick out 1.4 of the object.

The central core would be just about the right size and being the brightest would be most apparent.

[Unicronicus]

I thought I could see it in the finder but I'm not sure, I've never had the chance to look for it this year up until now. I could not see bodes with the naked eye, it always takes me a while to find that [removed word]! Mmm, miffed then... Was it or wasn't it...? I might wait until mid to late June when M31 is up higher to have a decent look, it was very low and above land after all so it wasn't it my favour.

[ollypenrice]

'Blob' is not a bad description of M31 through a small scope and lots of atmosphere (due to the low elevation.) Let it climb higher in the sky.

Olly