Great, confusing, but great night!

[Dom1961]

Well after being told that I should be able to see M81 in my other thread, I went out last night. It was really clear and I could see thousands of stars, loads more than normal as where I live there is a bit of light pollution. I used the tetrad to aim roughly at the area M81 should be and scanned around for about 10 minutes. Then I found what I thought to be M81. It was like a small fuzzy ball thing- okay I thought to myself, probably still too light for the galaxy shape, just the core. So I stared at it for about 15 mind, then moved my scope away to practice finding it. However when I went back I found another small fuzzy patch which was like a really elongated elipse, it wasn't the same as the other one because this had a different pattern of stars around it to earlier. So my question is, which one was M81 and what was the other one? I don't think it was M82 as when I looked around the smudgy one I couldn't see the circle one.

Thanks!

[RLWP]

That made me smile. I have no idea of what you saw, I'm at pretty much the same stage myself. I also practice finding stuff, then get distracted by other stuff, get lost, then find different things

Your descriptions seem very familiar too

Greetings from another newbie getting lost amongst the stars

Richard

[John]

I think thats probably M81 and M82 you saw. You need a reasonably low power eyepiece to get them both in the same field of view.

The reality is that galaxies observed with moderate aperture scopes under typical conditions are almost all faint fuzzy patches of light. Some larger than others, some elongated (M82) some oval (M81) and some circular (eg: M32) but invariably just patches of light some with condensed centres.

With my 12" scope under a really dark sky I can make out the spiral form of M51 but even that needs to be worked at - it's not "in your face".

Sorry if this is dissapointing but you are seeing things that are very, very, very far away so even the largest and brightest will look a little unimpressive in terms of showiness.

Under really dark skies they will look more apparent and you may be able to see some dark rifts running across the elongated one (M82) but averted vision might be needed to tease them out.

[Dom1961]

Thanks John, that's great knowing what I saw! And nahh it's not disappointing:D

[laudropb]

Almost certainly M82, the cigar Galaxy. Well done 2 Messiers for the price of one

[Stu]

Nice one Dom. The first one would have been M81, and the elongated one would be M82. As the skies get darker, or you get to a better site the views will improve but as John says, it is all degrees of 'fuzzy blobness' I'm afraid

[Scott]

certainly sounds like a great night. The first time I found M81/M82 I'd been searching on and off for about a week and I must confess I did a little fist pump and exclaimed "YES"...  They were the first galaxies I found and to think that earth was 11-12 million ish years younger when the light left was pretty mind blowing to me. Thanks for the read and the reminder of just how excited I was when I first saw them

[Moonshane]

dark skies makes a huge difference to galaxies. I agree you definitely saw M81 and M82. with a wider field eyepiece, you'll get both in the same view.

[andrew63]

Observing don't get much better than this !  Great objects to see for the first time.   This is a sketch of the two galaxies you saw, and this site is a good reference to give some impression of the objects you are looking for/at.

Messier 81, Messier 82 (Bode's, Cigar Galaxies) - Deep Sky Watch

andrew

[Dom1961]

Observing don't get much better than this !  Great objects to see for the first time.   This is a sketch of the two galaxies you saw, and this site is a good reference to give some impression of the objects you are looking for/at.

Messier 81, Messier 82 (Bode's, Cigar Galaxies) - Deep Sky Watch

andrew

Aha, yes, I certainly saw that top skinny one, but I think I only saw the core of the big one below it

[Joe12345]

I saw 81 and 82 last night for the first time as well - my first galaxies! Through my 28mm 68* maxvision I could easily fit both in - I reckon through a starter skywatcher 25mm eyepiece you could just about fit them in. Also the pic in andrew's post was probably taken when they were the other way up in the sky - if you find m81, you look (what appears through the eyepiece as) down and left, rather than straight up as shown in the pic.

[John]

The orientation of the view will depend on the scope type being used.

Worth noting that the drawing linked to in Andrews helpful post was made using an 8" newtonian in the Negev Desert, Israel with a naked eye magnitude of 6.8 under what is described by the observer as "mediocre seeing".

I first found M81 and M82 with a 60mm refractor and was thrilled to bits as I did not think the small scope I had back then could show me such things

[damnut]

Hi Dom,

Though its reasonably dark here, when at a dark site the seeing is so much better. Congrats on finding the faint fuzzies.

[Piero]

I first found M81 and M82 with a 60mm refractor and was thrilled to bits as I did not think the small scope I had back then could show me such things

Although not my the first time, I also saw them with my 60mm with a Nagler 13 under a moderately light polluted sky. The M82 elongated shape and the M82 oval form were clearly visible. Averted vision showed the two galaxies even better. Really pretty. 

[cotterless45]

Just about given up with galaxies from the edge of town. Our light pollution is getting as bad as the weather !

More sustainable targets are planetary nebulae, open and globular clusters, double stars, planets and the Moon. Plenty to keep busy with,

Nick.