Do you know of any galaxy that I can observe with a 90mm telescope in winter?

[Loic_Imbeau]

I have a 90mm telescope and I would like to observe galaxies but I don't know which one! I know I could observe Andromeda but that galaxy is literally over me! 

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, Loic_Imbeau said:

I have a 90mm telescope and I would like to observe galaxies but I don't know which one! I know I could observe Andromeda but that galaxy is literally over me! 

Not totally sure what you are saying about Andromeda, but M31 the Andromeda Galaxy is probably your best bet. Outside that, M81 and M82 in Ursa Major are well placed currently and relatively bright.

[vlaiv]

M81, M82 should be fairly easy targets now

[D4N]

The important thing with galaxies is to be somewhere dark, light pollution ruins them.

Andromeda is great to view at low magnification, a common mistake is to increase the magnification too much on it so you only see the core.

[Charic]

24 minutes ago, Loic_Imbeau said:

I could observe Andromeda but that galaxy is literally over me! 

If its right above your head, then that can  make access to the eyepiece rather awkward for some folk, but the positive side is that anything straight up is viewed through less atmosphere, and under good seeing conditions, does not get any better.
Use the lowest power eyepiece you have in your collection, M31 is so large, so spread out that it diffuses the Galaxy which is best seen at a low power, wide angle, and away from any light pollution, otherwise what you may see with M31 is a very small wispy patch of nothing much!

[Knighty2112]

What kind of diagonal do you have with the scope? Is it a 45 degree or 90 degree diagonal? If the former that will make it extremely hard to view things directly above you. If the later then you should be able to get M31 still as long as you mount allows to view near to zenith. If you have a 45 degree diagonal you should look into getting a 90 degree one to make viewing much easier all round. 

[Swoop1]

Not a galaxy but, the Orion Nebula is very visible and should be observable with your scope?

[Loic_Imbeau]

1 hour ago, Knighty2112 said:

What kind of diagonal do you have with the scope? Is it a 45 degree or 90 degree diagonal? If the former that will make it extremely hard to view things directly above you. If the later then you should be able to get M31 still as long as you mount allows to view near to zenith. If you have a 45 degree diagonal you should look into getting a 90 degree one to make viewing much easier all round. 

 

I think I have a 90o one. I didn't know a 90o diagonal could see all round (even if it's kind of obvious).

[Loic_Imbeau]

48 minutes ago, Swoop1 said:

Not a galaxy but, the Orion Nebula is very visible and should be observable with your scope?

Yep. I observed it last night! 

[alanjgreen]

get a copy of this book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Night-Objects-Telescope/0521153972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484525922&sr=8-1&keywords=turn+left+at+orion

has all the main objects (sorted by season), shows how to star-hop to them and show sketches of what you see at the eyepiece in a small scope.

 

[Loic_Imbeau]

9 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

get a copy of this book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Night-Objects-Telescope/0521153972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484525922&sr=8-1&keywords=turn+left+at+orion

has all the main objects (sorted by season), shows how to star-hop to them and show sketches of what you see at the eyepiece in a small scope.

 

 

Interesting! 

[Dave In Vermont]

Here's a link to get DeepSkyObject Browser on your system. This wonderful program you can tune to anytime is easily set to show you DSO's (like Galaxies, Nebulae, etc.) viewable from your location. And it's absolutely free to register with and use to your hearts' content:

https://dso-browser.com/

This should help you!

Dave

[ronin]

Andromeda galaxy and binoculars are going to be the best option. The 90mm scope will deliver too much magnification (usually) to fit it all in. So what people generally end up seeing is just the core and that is a bit uninspiring. Binoculars have a wider field of view so you get it all in.

Will warn you it is still a faint lightish grey smudge, but from a reasonable location you can see it.

If you google for "list of messier objects" you get a link to Wikipedia, and the Wiki page has a good table, if you then click on the top of the Type column the table is reordered by object type and all the galaxies are grouped together. You can then start at the brightest and work down.

Another one to consider in the same area as M31 is M33, just again do not expect much in the way of detail. People have objected to them being called "faint fuzzies" but the reality is that is what many are.

[Dave In Vermont]

I must respectfully disagree with ronin - using your lowest-power eyepiece may well give you an expansive enough Field Of View (FOV) of Andromeda - M31 - in your main scope.

Can't hurt to try!

Enjoy your galaxies -

Dave

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

I must respectfully disagree with ronin - using your lowest-power eyepiece may well give you an expansice enough Field Of View (FOV) of Andromeda - M31 - in your main scope.

Can't hurt to try!

Enjoy your galaxies -

Dave

I would agree with Dave there. A 90mm scope will likely have a reasonably short focal length so should give a decent fov. The aperture will help vs binoculars too.

M33 is far trickier than M31, it has lower surface brightness so is much more easily lost in light polluted skies, whereas the core of M31 can be seen under pretty bad conditions.

[domstar]

Try M77 in Cetus. I found it in my 70mm but was so faint that it was almost not there. The thrill was not the view but in finding and seeing it-and the fact it's 47 million light years away. One day I'm going to draw the distance of it to scale with the stars I've seen in our neck of the milky way and andromeda.

On the plus side, it's a pleasure to star hop to with my finder scope. Menkar (alpha Ceti) is bright and orange and two hops and you're there. Stellarium got me there but there is no flailing about in the darkness and I find the angle is just right to use the finder and not too high for my refractor on a balcony.

Have fun.

[barkis]

Galaxies are a class of objects among many others in the Universe.
Other being star Clusters,   Globular, and Open Clusters,  Planetary Nebula, Double Stars too,
 very rewarding subject to pursue.  Galaxies are fine, but please don't neglect
 all the other goodies up there .