Rose Head nebula or NCG 2244?

[Mattiman]

Hi there fellow astronomers 

I'm in the southern hemisphere from New Zealand. 

I have a pair of Saxon 30 x 80WP binoculars, (I'm guessing that they're almost as powerful as a small telescope.) so tonight I figured that with good skies overhead lights, I'd head out to my back garden for some astronomy... I was trying to find the rose head nebula well at least I think that's what it's called, to start my search I  started with the belt of Orion... Moved my way down till I found betleguese then moved up till I saw what I thought looked like  NCG 2186.. From here I got lost... I was using my Android tablet which has Sky Safari 5 pro on it to help me out but I still got lost! I finished up my search with "a general scout around the area"  of sky where I thought it could be but I was unsuccessful ?? so after being eaten slightly by mosquitoes and having a sore neck I decided to retire to my bed for the night. 

 

Was wondering if anyone here could help me out or give me some advice /tips on searching for items in the sky / help to find the rose head nebula.. 

 

Clear skies to you all.. 

 

Mattiman

[carastro]

I think you mean the Rosette Nebula.  You can only really see the central bright stars with a scope or binoculars.

I am an imager, so not used to star hopping.  I know it is approx halfway between Betelgeuse and Procyon.

Hope a "star hopper" will be able to help you.

Carole  

 

[MarsG76]

To see the rosette you will need your eyes to be dark adapted. If you're using a Android tablet as a star map, unless you're using some red filter, and very low level screen brightness, you wont get you pupils fully dilated, making hard or impossible to see faint stuff like the Rosette.

If hand held binos, than thats problem 2, the jerkiness of unsteady binos will also negate any nebulosity... put them on a tripod and practise on the Orion nebula. Allow your our eyes to stare at the nebula through a stable instrument for a while to get the full effect of what you're observing.

Observing does take practise.