How low can you go?

[N3ptune]

5 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

It was my second look at Elephant Trunk. First time I also didn't see any nebulosity. It's pretty faint. I had a good tip from @jetstream to try and pick up an edge on large nebulas like that. It's really helped me. The contrast of black space next to the nebulosity makes it easier to get that initial spot.

Caroline's Rose has been mentioned as a favourite by a few people on here recently. It's a great target and benefits from spending a bit of time studying it

I didn't spend enough time on it the first time, I recall because there was some very annoying wind. To look for the edge, that great tip from @jetstream that's how I located the north America and Pellican nebulae the first time. I can't wait to try again on the elephant's trunk and to look at beautiful Caroline!

 

[dick_dangerous]

M7 from the UK is a pain, and definitely one to "tick off" as it were, along with M6 and M83. All these objects are presumably glorious from further south (e.g. Spain) but I'm yet to observe them from there. 

For the Scorpius open clusters, you're basically restricted to observing them at about 12.30am late-June/July with a really clear southern horizon and very transparent skies. They're not that impressive from our latitude so the thrill is definitely in the chase!

Paul

[DavidR100]

How low can you go? That’s a question that has preoccupied my also mind for quite a while!  Success for me came just over a month ago when I saw M7 from North Wales which is about ½ degree north of Norwich.

I built up to M7 by aiming for M6 first, which I saw a month earlier, so that is something you could try out as a springboard.  For me, seeing M6 at these latitudes was a real achievement and it gave me the confidence to search even further south. 

I saw both objects first in my 10x50 bins, though M7 was very faint.

A dark, clear and of course low horizon were all key for both objects, so maybe you need to up sticks and head out away from suburbia…

I’ve posted a report entitled “In Search of the Southerly Messiers” covering my experiences, in the Deep Sky section if you are interested.  I have just updated it with a diagram showing how I navigated to M6 and M7.

Nice descriptive and enthusiastic report – yours that is!

[Littleguy80]

Thank you, David. I'm glad my enthusiasm came across  Congratulations on seeing M7, it's not an easy thing to do from our latitude. I think M6/M7 will be top of my list of targets next summer. This year I was certain that I'd be able to see any of the Sagittarius sights so I've been really please to see the Lagoon and Star Cloud amongst others.

I've just had a read of your report. Really enjoyed it