First Observing Report

[jRaskell]

Conditions:

Clear skies.  Temps ~40º F.  Considerable light pollution from my front yard just outside Manchester NH.

Target Goals

M31, M33, M36, M37, M38, M42, & M81

Equipment

Meade Infinity 102mm F5.9 Refractor.  Included 25mm,  9mm, and 6mm eyepieces (Did not use the barlow)

Report

M31 was easy to find, but given the LP, only the core was visible and it was quite indistinct.  Best viewed with 25mm ep.  Higher mags only made the core less distinct with no additional detail.  No surpise there.

M33 was tough to locate, very low contrast when I finally located it.  At least, I'm pretty sure I did actually locate it.  Like M31, best viewed with the 25mm ep, but not really much seen even with averted vision.

M36 & M37 were both easy to locate and offered good views with both the 25mm and 9mm eps.  M36 was better in the 25mm ep, M37 better in the 9mm ep, both setups offering nice fields of a dozen or so stars in the ep.  M38 was a bit tougher to locate, and far fewer stars were visible in either ep.  Just for kicks I took a crack at the flaming star nebula, and while it was easy to locate that fairly distinct arrangement of 5 stars in it, the nebula itself just couldn't be seen, by me at least.

Next up was M42, another easy find, and my primary target in my short outing last week.  This one was best viewed in the 9mm and 6mm eps.  The 9mm ep provided the best view of the core of the nebula while the 6mm ep made it easy to separate the 4 stars in the core.

Last goal of the night was M81, and this was my second attempt at trying to locate and view it, and my second failure.  It may just be too dim to be seen in my light polluted skies, given how tough it was to see M33.

I also spent some time just slewing around and checking out the brighter stars up there last night as well, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Capella, Aldebaran, Polaris, etc.

Non-Stellar Observations

So far I am overall pleased with this telescope.  For the price, it's a decent piece of equipment.  The eyepieces, while not ideal, are serviceable and don't represent any real obstruction to observing.  I can't exactly say the same for the mount though.  For the price, it's about as good as can be expected, but it's the one piece I think I'm going to want to upgrade sooner rather than later.  The barlow isn't really usable, it doesn't seat flush in the diagonal for some reason.  I'll likely just buy a better barlow at some point as opposed to trying to get this one warranty replaced.

I'm going to research LP filters, see if they can offer any improvement to my home viewing.

I'm very much looking forward to spending the holidays at my parents, hoping for some clear skies.  They live under much darker skies than I do.  I already have a fairly long list of target goals for their house.  

[Charic]

Nice report, at least someone is getting out and using their equipment.
I even missed the Aurora this week, pretty good images were reported on the local news.

[Astro Imp]

Thank you for an enjoyable report.

BTW if you managed to view M33 in your LP then IMO M81 should also be observable.

Good luck.

[Galen Gilmore]

Nice report, m33 is a very diffuse object, even more so than m31. I think that m81, while dimmer, actually is a bit more contrasty.  You should be able to see it, but it might take 40 strait minutes of locating it (exactly using star patterns), then just putting all of your available energy into seeing it.

I can see it from my LP yard with a 114mm 

[Littleguy80]

Great first report! Agree that M81 should be observable if you can see M33. It's partner M82, normally stands out pretty well too. I can't think of an occasion where I've seen one and not the other. I've borrowed the star hopping guide below from SGL member @John. Hope it helps you next time you're out  There are no light pollution filters out there that will give you the equivalent of good dark skies. However,iIf you wanted to try one though I'd suggest the Baader Neodymium  Moon and Sky Glow Filter. It has many uses so even if it doesn't give the results you hope for with the light pollution it still makes a great filter on the moon and planets.

 

[domstar]

Great report. I was seriously thinking about buying your scope this year so I'm glad to hear it works well. M81 and M82 give me nightmares. I've seen them two or three times and they are wonderful, but I seem to have lost the knack of finding them. I'm much better at star hopping in just one plain so I'll just wait til it's perpendicular to a bright star and slide from there. Gamma Draco could be a candidate at this time. Nice spot on M33. It's one of those I'm yet to see.

[jRaskell]

Thanks for all the encouragement on M81.  I'll give that starhopping guide a go next time.  It sounds like I just haven't been able to properly locate it, which I can believe.  All my other targets were fairly close to some star patterns easily spotted with the naked eye.

I'll take a look at the Baader neodymium filter.  I'm well aware there's no replacement for dark skies, but I'll consider anything that can help with the viewing at home since that's where I'll be doing the majority of my stargazing.

[des anderson]

That was a very enjoyable read. Des

[Paul73]

I love a good observing report. As others have said. M81 and 82 will be easier than M33. They aren't quite as easy to find though! Your 24mm eyepiece is the one to use. 

Paul

[alan potts]

Nice report there well done, with a bit of luck it may even clear here later.

Alan