finding new objects

[bamastar]

Last night I saw the dumbbell nebula for the first time. Idk why this object was so difficult for me to find. After 5/6 sessions if trying, I finely found it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has ever had a hard time finding an object. When you were starting out, what was some objects that you found difficult to find?

[Bart]

I found most objects difficult until I realised that often they were looking back at me, I just wasn't very good at recognising them!

Barry

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Messier 76 is a tricky one, as is M101

[PHIL53]

Wait until you will be looking for NGC 6826 (Blinking Nebula) ... I miss it most of the times (but once you get it, you will not forget the unbelievable trick it plays !)

[bamastar]

Funny you said NGC 6826. I'm having trouble now finding that one. I've had 2 sessions so far looking for it with no luck. When I first for the Dob, it was M51. I spent over a month and a half looking for it and couldn't find it. Then one night I went right to it. Now its no problem for me to find and it's kind of bitter sweet every time I do look at, knowing how hard it once was for me.

[bamastar]

I was actually surprised that I missed the dumbbell bc of its size. I was thinking it would be about the size of the Ring nebula, but it was a bit larger. My sky's here vary from night to night that I really could see the faint constatations surrounding the dumbbell. Two nights ago, the sky seemed much darker and I could make out Sagitta. That's what helped me locate it

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Some of these planetaries are much smaller than you might expect after seeing the Ring. The Helix (HUGE)  and Dumbbell are large ones, but the majority are much smaller, looking very much like Uranus or Neptune both in shape, size and colour (hence the name planetary: nobody could think M57 or M27 were planets). The Blinking Planetary is one of the smaller ones: about one tenth of the diameter of the Ring. I have spotted far smaller, almost stellar ones, using a trick I call UHC or O-III blinking. I have a filter switch in my diagonal which allows me to switch quickly between UHC (or O-III) filter and no filter. This causes a blinking effect in the planetary: it seems to be brightening when the filter is introduced into the optical path. In fact it is the field stars that grow dimmer.