Finding deep sky objects in light pollution

[Nerf_Caching]

Saw the Orion nebula last night in all its glory, with a 70mm frac. Couldn't find other DSO's yet as I live in a very urbanised and light polluted part of Hong kong, especially with the reflection and glare of surrounding light sources off of my eyepieces, which make them hard to look through. Star hopping is not very effective with red dot finder and 45x magnification EP. I only know how to find Orion and Canis Major in the sky. Still got a long way to go. Any tips? Thanks!!

[Stu]

Sounds like a challenging place to observe the stars, but good on you!

Thoughts. Firstly get yourself an observing hood of some sort, perhaps even just a thick towel over your head to block out the glare, that will help. Make sure your breath can escape easily so you don't fog the eyepiece up!

I would forget galaxies and faint nebulae until you can get somewhere darker, concentrate on objects with high surface brightness such as globular clusters, planetary nebulae, open clusters and double/multiple stars. These will cut through the LP more easily.

Good luck!

[Nerf_Caching]

Where I live, the few deep sky objects that are around are M50,42,78,79 and possibly the Pleiades and M1. All facing south. I've tried to track down M50 and M79. Are they too dim for my observing setting? I don't normally have a lot of time for observing.

[Geoff Lister]

If you can get outside just before dawn, Jupiter should be visible (clouds permitting) almost due south, and Mars, a lot dimmer, and lower towards the south-east. You may be able to catch a glimpse of Saturn before sunrise, if you have good visibility towards the south-eastern horizon. Not DSOs, but worth looking at if light pollution is hiding the faint fuzzies.

If you have a PC, download the free planetarium program "Stellarium". If you set the location to Hong Kong, it will show you what is in the sky at that moment, and you can move time to plan an observing session. As it goes from daylight to dark, it adds the names of the brightest stars against the outlines of their constellations. If you have a phone/tablet, there are several good planetarium apps; I use Celestron's free SkyPortal, and with the compass option activated, it gives a real-time view of the sky as you move the device about.

Geoff