Tips on Nebulae and Galaxys - larger scope or filters

[jetstream]

Agree with the above. Best view of NA I've had before was in low power bino's in fact.

What power do you use in your scope for the NA? Do you use any filters? What AFOV?

Hi Greg, I use my VX10 f4.8 mostly, with an OIII filter. I use a 21mm 100deg EP and most recently a 30mm ES 82 which is excellent in this scope with the OIII.  This combo gives a 2 deg TFOV @ 6.2mm exit pupil, 40x and shows an underlying nebulosity surrounding the main nebula, with a few detached clouds about. It also shows the Pelican extremely well.

I also use my refractors but I like the larger, more detailed look the VX10 gives. The nebula does show well in the refractors though. If I could I would use the 30mm ES 3" on this object, with its huge 52mm field stop- but its not going to happen.

[cotterless45]

There's an excellent guide to observing tips in the February edition of the S@N magazine. It covers observing faint targets by choosing optimum magnification, averted vision, moving your eye around the fov and other tips to glimpse the obscure,

Nick.

[YKSE]

As already said by many others, filters (UHC, OIII and HB) have effects on Nebulae only. The size and surface brightness of the DSO need to take into account too.There's an excellent page here:

http://starizona.com/acb/basics/observing_theory.aspx

I've read it many times, but every time I read it, I get some more understanding how the whole observing system works.

[Bart]

Interesting, thanks for posting

Barry

[greglloyd]

Hi Greg, I use my VX10 f4.8 mostly, with an OIII filter. I use a 21mm 100deg EP and most recently a 30mm ES 82 which is excellent in this scope with the OIII. This combo gives a 2 deg TFOV @ 6.2mm exit pupil, 40x and shows an underlying nebulosity surrounding the main nebula, with a few detached clouds about. It also shows the Pelican extremely well.

I also use my refractors but I like the larger, more detailed look the VX10 gives. The nebula does show well in the refractors though. If I could I would use the 30mm ES 3" on this object, with its huge 52mm field stop- but its not going to happen.

Excellent! Thanks for that info :-)