Searching for Grey Blobs

[M Astronomy]

Hello, everyone, time for another astronomy report I think. Last night...

Exams are over, it's the first day of the holiday and the sky is clear as anything. After the snow and hail had left, the sun came out and finally set, leaving a dark sky just waiting to be explored.

I put the telescope outside to let it acclimatise and headed inside to get organised. 4 layers of clothing later with Steven O'Meara's Messier book I hand, I set out. Only to find a cloud covering Ursa Major. Agh I was going to search for M51 and M101 tonight. I thought I'd wait it out and see if it'd clear. I'd amuse myself with some other objects in the mean time. The Orion nebula - an object i have seen many a time yet still looking beautiful. The Andromeda galaxy - is that M110 I can see? Maybe... M78 - A new favourite of mine, despite very faint in my 3 inch scope, I love the dim dust of that grey smudge. Hmm, what else can I see? I took a step back from the telescope and gazed up at the sky, the winter constellations I'm so familiar with shining brightly. Taurus was right ahead. I scanned it with my binoculars, the many stars do the Hyades and Pleiades filling the view. Could I see the Crab Nebula? I've always wanted to see the supernova remnant, the first object in the Messier catalogue, yet never have been able to. Let's give it a try. 

I swung my telescope around, trying to land on the bright star that should be close to it, according the O'Meara. This is quite a job when using a red dot finder, out of alignment and out of battery, but after a few minutes of sweeping the telescope round, the bright star was finally visible. Up and to the right a bit. Nothing. Wait. A very faint blob appeared, dimmer than M78, only visible when using averted vision. But what an intriguing grey blob it was. I was looking at the remains of a star.

After some time trying to tease some detail out of the smudge, with no success, I realised cloud was coming in. The plough had cleared and I tried to find M51 and M101, yet no success. I wasn't disappointed though, my finding of the Crab Nebula had enthralled me enough. I took a look at M81 and M82, though haze had started to cover the sky and the view was poor. My feet were complaining at the cold, despite the new pair of thick socks, so I finally went inside.

A successful night of hunting grey blobs I'd say. What should I go searching for next?

[Ally8446]

Bigger, smaller, brighter, fainter, further, nearer grey fuzzies. I LIVE FOR GREY FUZZY BLOBS....CAN'T GET ENOUGHOF THEM ???

[Demonperformer]

Congratulations on your first view of M1. I always feel there is something special about this object due to its history.

[Astro Imp]

Well done, an intriguing object with it's long history but so difficult to observe. 

Good luck for the future. 

Do you like open clusters ? M35 in Gemini is well placed at the moment and well worth a look.

[Paz]

Well done on getting m1, the first time is the most difficult, once you've clocked it it's much easier to find again .