Finding my first galaxies: Leo triplet and Andromeda

[estwing]

Swampthing lives south of London and regularly travels to the Elan valley to Observe..we only do DSO's...its a long drive but it has its rewards, its stunning.

Sailisbury plane isn't bad same as Exmoor. I just urge you to do it once near a new moon....good luck.

[Eastman]

23 hours ago, Dinoco said:

But wow, I may have gotten a bit over excited when I found it nearly knocked the whole set up over!

Great report Olli,

 

We all know that feeling!!

Congrats with your first galaxies!

Next time when you look at the Andromeda galaxy you can score two more galaxies in the same view M32 (little bit harder) and M110.

Leo triplet, that a beautiful group too, well done!

Up to many more!

greets Gert

 

[Olli]

10 minutes ago, Eastman said:

Great report Olli,

 

We all know that feeling!!

Congrats with your first galaxies!

Next time when you look at the Andromeda galaxy you can score two more galaxies in the same view M32 (little bit harder) and M110.

Leo triplet, that a beautiful group too, well done!

Up to many more!

greets Gert

 

Thanks gert it is a great feeling. I think as I was so excited that I had found m31 I didn't really observe it properly or as long as I should have. But next session I’ll try and look at it properly.

[Hungrymark]

I'm relatively new too, like yourself. I don't know if you've already worked this out but what's made a staggering difference to my ability to find stuff is working out the field of view of my finder and using that to compare to star charts. Sounds so simple, but it didn't occur to me for months, felt like a right idiot. Anyway, try that and M81/82 become simple to jump to straight from Dubhe. 

[Stu]

39 minutes ago, Hungrymark said:

I'm relatively new too, like yourself. I don't know if you've already worked this out but what's made a staggering difference to my ability to find stuff is working out the field of view of my finder and using that to compare to star charts. Sounds so simple, but it didn't occur to me for months, felt like a right idiot. Anyway, try that and M81/82 become simple to jump to straight from Dubhe. 

That’s absolutely right. Understanding the scale of objects, the distances between them and how they relate to the fov of your finderscope and scope is key to being to find and identify objects. DSO range in size from tiny galaxies and PNs to huge galaxies, nebulae and star clusters.

[Olli]

1 hour ago, Hungrymark said:

I'm relatively new too, like yourself. I don't know if you've already worked this out but what's made a staggering difference to my ability to find stuff is working out the field of view of my finder and using that to compare to star charts. Sounds so simple, but it didn't occur to me for months, felt like a right idiot. Anyway, try that and M81/82 become simple to jump to straight from Dubhe. 

Thank you for that. that was one of the reasons i was struggling to star hop was working out  the distance between each object. 

[estwing]

Talrad comes in here...inside S&T cover you will find this...

trace this onto a piece of plastic then put over whatever you are observing to show scale

using my finderscope 9x50 I've done the same for deeper work eg around Orion's Belt, bottom pic is a telrad with these charts (Uranometrian 2000)