Clear night...no DSOs:(

[gooseholla]

When I had my 8" telescope in a light polluted environment ie my back garden, faint fuzzies were a nightmare to see. I had to really be dark adapted to find them. The Crab Nebula took a long time of looking down the eyepiece in the correct area before I saw anything. About the easiest to find was Andromeda. When I had a 12" the situation was different. But it is all about getting dark adapted and knowing where to look. Most of the galaxies are faint and smudges. They can be washed out easily and hard to detect. I can tell you my 4" maksutov can see galaxies, so it is about getting dark adapted and knowing what to expect. Some galaxies are no more than faint smudges, whose cores are seemingly star sized.

Imagine a black sheet of paper. Now get a pencil and make some smudge marks on it that are about the size of the eraser. Now rub your finger on that smudge until it no longer reflects the light in the lead. Now hold the paper up and try and find them. Hold it near a light source, they all but disappear. Now bring it close to your eyes. This is why you need dark adaption. They are hard to find at the best of times!
 

John

 

[Scott]

Come on mate, be fair. You were looking through an 18" and a 20" Dob at SGLX. These were giving you the view of an extended object with over four times the surface area at the same surface brightness when compared to your 8". This is a huge difference in image scale.

Few people are going to upgrade to that extent from an 8" scope.

haha,  too true mate, too true

[Dom1961]

Just got back in, I think I may have seen something in the virgo DSO cluster. It looked like a slightly different shade to its background and had 3 stars in the form of a triangle in its centre, am I seeing things or is this a DSO?

[Dom1961]

Last night was pretty bad I thought. Most of the stars were twinkling which I think means high turbulance and there was cloud about. I could just make out M94 but as soon as I put my LP on it dissapeared. There always tonight.

If you haven't got any telrad finder charts you can find them here

http://www.solarius.net/Pages/Articles/dbArticle.aspx?artid=messier_finders

http://www.atmob.org/library/member/skymaps_jsmall.html

 are those still useful? They're dated to be a few years old, do DSOs move much?

[swamp thing]

are those still useful? They're dated to be a few years old, do DSOs move much?

Unlike planets DSO's do not move in relation to their surroundings. Only time of year governs what and when we can see them.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

DSO's do not jump out at you, they take a lot of work to try and find, I've spent an hour or two searching for DSO as they really are that. I wouldn't buy a filter (not yet anyway) because its not going to help you at this stage.

Matt.

[Stu]

Why don't you give M3 a go? It is quite well positioned at the moment and relatively easy to find on a line between Arcturus and Cor Caroli.

I agree with Olly's comment about not using smartphones or tablets when observing. They do wipe out your night vision and make it harder to spot things. You can get round this with a layer of rubylith film over the screen and the brightness turned right down. At SGLX I was using SkySafari on an iPhone in this way and it did not affect my vision any worse than a red light torch, probably less given the brightness of some head torches!!

Agreed about filters, they are not the answer at the moment. Good finder charts, a well aligned telrad and optical finder, dark adaptation and patience are what is needed.

Forget the Virgo cluster for the moment, I've never seen them from home and struggled with M65 and 66 in a 10" the other night.

Stick to higher surface brightness targets like globular clusters or perhaps some of the easier open clusters in Auriga - M36, 37 & 38

[Dom1961]

I have a load of telrad charts on my tablet and I laser cut some red perspex at school the other day and I clip the perspex over my screen when I use it. I'll give M3 a go tonight weather permitting!

[spaceboy]

I think galaxies are real hard work and not something I often bother with TBH.

I do have the occasional look under my LP skies if the transparency is good or the galaxy is over head but even then it can be difficult to see much more than the core or edge against the washed out skies.

Under dark skies and with 6-12" aperture galaxies do start to come to life and far more of the galaxy is distinguishable from the background but even then there isn't a great deal of detail to be seen in the galaxy itself unless you have 14"+ at your disposal.

Give the bode's M81, M82 and whirlpool M51 a try when the moon is out of the way. These are relatively easy to find and positioned nicely over head so less likely to be effected by surrounding LP.  http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/

Stick to your 25mm eyepiece as the stock MA 10mm is terrible at the best of times. Also if you think you have a galaxy in the eyepiece but your unsure it sometimes helps to give the OTA a gentle tap. I'm hopeless at explaining myself but the benefits of doing this should become apparent if there is something in the FOV.

As for buying filters I would hold off until you have a couple of nice eyepieces as these will give more benefit to you overall than using a filter with the scopes supplied MA eyepieces.

HTH

[Dom1961]

Just got in, I think I may have found M3! Are you supposed to be able to tell the different stars within it? I saw like a small fuzzy circular thing was that it? I couldn't see the seperate stars like in beehive, i just saw fuzzy? 

[Matt Scunthorpe]

M44 is an open cluster, whereas M3 is a globular cluster, so the stars are all tight together (in space terms) so cant be resolved easily, i think M13 shows some detail around the edges when viewing good.

Most DSOs will be grey and fuzzy, welcome to Amateur Astronomy lol.

Matt.

[sheldondave]

Just got in, I think I may have found M3! Are you supposed to be able to tell the different stars within it? I saw like a small fuzzy circular thing was that it? I couldn't see the seperate stars like in beehive, i just saw fuzzy? 

Hi,

Sounds like you just saw M3. Just like Matt above I would suggest M13 & M92 in Hercules as they are a bit brighter and should show more detail. I also suggest spending a bit of time on each object as you should gradualy be able to see more detail over time.

Good luck and clear skys

Dave.

[Dom1961]

Yay:D I spent ages looking for it and when I found it my mum wanted me to come in :'( Hopefully I'll be able to find it again tonight!!

[Stu]

Yay:D I spent ages looking for it and when I found it my mum wanted me to come in :'( Hopefully I'll be able to find it again tonight!!

Well done Dom!

I suggested M3 as its a bit higher at the moment so probably easier to pick out of the light pollution. M13 is nicer though and you should be able to resolve some stars around the edge. Try averted vision too, this really helps with resolving the stars in globs

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Averted vision is a good tip when looking for faint stuff, effectively you look to the corner of the FOV, and the object (or what you think it is) should jump out at you more, something to do with cones in your eyes.

Matt.

[goose35]

Been practicing averted vision myself. Its a bit odd you look away and something pops out then look at it then it goes away.

Got to get used to looking without looking

[Stu]

I find with globs of you do look at them, then flick your eyes away, the stars really start to resolve nicely

[spaceboy]

Well done on finding M3 Dom

[hgjevans]

Globulars seem to take magnification well, too. I've been using my 5mm eyepiece on them routinely since they started coming back up in the eastern skies this spring. And I recall the delight last autumn when I had just bought my scope, and M13 was still available in the evening sky - I was resolving individual stars with the barlowed 10mm MA. I had never previously been able to see globulars as any more than brightish fuzzy balls, so that for me was the moment that I knew it had been money well spent.

So to the OP I'd say, when you get the chance of some more eyepieces, try a little more magnification - you can certainly resolve some individual stars in a bright globular cluster with an 8" SW. But where open clusters typically have dozens, or maybe up to a few hundred stars that are well spaced out (because they're moving apart, and not gravitationally bound), globulars have hundreds of thousands in a comparatively tight region of space. They also tend to be further away, so it's not surprising that they still look mostly like fuzz balls.

Nevertheless, the only one I've looked at so far this spring that I've not been able to resolve any individual stars in has been M14, and to be fair that's a good deal less bright than the likes of M13, M3, and so on.

[Dom1961]

Are there any chances of me seeing m51? I have a little LP, or shall I stick to globs

[John]

Are there any chances of me seeing m51? I have a little LP, or shall I stick to globs

When Ursa Major is high in the sky and there is no moonlight around M51 will be visible in your scope as two small misty spots of light close together and one a little larger than the other. I can see it with my 4" refractor so it should be there with your 8". Use your low power eyepiece to find it but it's not very large.