Found Em !!!!!

[Ed in UK]

Last night I managed to bag my first galaxies, M81 & M82  

I took the dog for a walk on night beforehand and was surprised to see clear skies, so afterwards I spent at 20 mins outside with my binoculars and star charts looking for the "Hop" from Star 23 in Ursa Major as advised by @Stu . I believe I found the triangle (Delta 1 & 2 plus Rho I believe) but struggled a little more to find the line of stars close by M81 & M82, I think I found them but certainly no sign of any galaxies.

Last night, clear skies from the word go and and I tried the hop from 23 again but really struggled and didn't find the triangle at all.

I tried using the Setting Circles to drop me in the area but again really struggled to find anything on the chart that matched what I could see in the scope. In the end I believe that I found Stars 27 & 22 close to NG2985 (didn't see that) and tried to work my way back down to M81 & M82. Nothing seemed to stack up as I made my journey around the sky, then suddenly I thought I saw a faint misty smudge in the EP. After spending sometime looking at it bingo got a second, fainter, one in the EP as well.

Looking at the what I could see around them I could be sure I had got them, I increased the mag by using the 10mm EP. Bit of a struggle to see them with this EP but with adverted vision they were definitely there.

I couldn't make out any detail other than the star (looked like a double to me) just on the edge M81 and a line of stars coming from M82. I was able to hop between them with the 10mm EP using a small star between them as a reference point.

Really didn't have a good viewing angle with the scope, got quite uncomfortable with slight crick in my neck, but hey it was worth it.

I tried to hop my way back to 23 using the 25mm EP again, I found the line of stars quite easily but again gave up trying to find the triangle.

It's really made me realize that I either need to find a darker site to view from for perhaps wait for the street lights to go out at midnight before trying to find stuff. All the stuff that I have read about these two galaxies seems to say that they should be an easy target to find. Or maybe it's just my inexperience......

Thanks to everyone for your help in previous posts.

[Red Dwarfer]

Well done ! I nicknamed that duo as " Bode`s Cigar " . If your location is dark enough to find M81/M82 then other 8th magnitude targets should also be within range 

[Ed in UK]

1 hour ago, Red Dwarfer said:

Well done ! I nicknamed that duo as " Bode`s Cigar " . If your location is dark enough to find M81/M82 then other 8th magnitude targets should also be within range 

Thanks, need to get my head around how bright things like galaxies and nebula are so that I can see what else is in range.

[domstar]

Nice one.They are wonderful. I've seen them a couple of times but since then I've had a lot of trouble trying to find them again. I know the star hop but still need the practice. 

[iPeace]

Yep, it's right next to Fmaj.

Oh, hang on...

[Littleguy80]

Great job, Ed. Practise definitely makes a big difference. You’ll notice that objects that took lots of planning and countless failed attempts will be found in minutes or even seconds with more experience behind you. Astronomy has quite a steep learning curve but there’s definitely a point where it becomes easier. Finding objects is much easier at a dark site with more visible stars but I wouldn’t let that put you off from observing from home. It’s all practise after all  

[25585]

It is a shame that the Sarna Deep Sky Atlas is out of print. I bought one long ago. It has pages for DSOs showing them and at least one finder star in a  Newtonian finder i.e. south on top.

The pages are A4 size, and DSOs are shown like sketched outlines to scale. It would probably breach copyright to show an image. Very useful guide, Google for images.

[Ed in UK]

Yeah I do research stuff before I look however I don't take too much notice of the images as they tend to look completely different. 

However I do look much closer at the images after I found what I was looking for just as confirmation really.