Best Winter LP Just Outside City Winter DSO

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

 I am a new owner of an Orion XT8.   It is November.  I live in the USA Pacific NW.  I have LP, but I am just (barely) outside of city and I can (just barely) see Milky Way with a clear sky.  

It has been cloudy every night since I got my telescope, so only been able to see obvious objects in the few breaks of cover (Moon/Mars/Saturn)......but tomorrow night is going to be my first completely clear skies. 

I am trying to get an DSO Observation List at this time of year in LP areas for a new and excited gazer.  Galaxies / Nebula / Clusters / etc.... 

What is your favorite Winter DSO that you would recommend to a newbie'ish user with an 8" Dob on the outskirts of LP city area?

 

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Eyepieces / Filters I Own……

• 12.3mm Orion Epic ED-2  1.25” eyepiece
• 20mm GSO Super PLOSSL  1.25” eyepiece
• 25mm Sirius Plossl 1.25” eyepiece  -- came with XT8
• 35mm DeepView 2" eyepiece -- came with XT8
•  2x 1.25” Shorty  inch Barlow
• Celestron 1.25" Mars Observing Filter
• Solomark 1.25 Inch UV IR Cut Block Filter

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[SteveNickolls]

Hi,

Have a look at the Perseus Double Cluster. If the conditions are clear you will be blown over by the intricate detail of the stars, delicate triangles and horseshoe shapes. Then slightly above and left is the open cluster Stock 2 (Muscleman Cluster), can you make him out flexing his arms?

Enjoy the Winter sky.

Cheers,
Steve

[Nyctimene]

You will enjoy your XT 8, a very capable scope; good choice.

For beginners, and in rather light polluted areas, it's best to start with easy-to-find objects, that withstand light pollution well: open clusters; bright planetary nebula, double stars.

Steve's suggestion is a good starting point. Use your 25 mmf Plössl for an easy find; then play with magnifications. Above the Double Cluster is Cassiopeia with the Owl/ E.T. cluster NGC 457, and more open clusters (oc), as 663, and the fainter, but large 7789 ("Caroline's Rose"), one of my favourites. Below, the star field around Alpha Persei. Auriga, just rising, with the three Messier oc's M36, M37 and M38 (the latter in the corner of the mouth of the asterism "Cheshire Cat"). Later on, Pleiades, Hyades, M 35 in Gemini with it's small companion 2158. The Eskimo nebula, NGC 2392, a bright planetary. And, of course, Orion with it's wonders: M 42, the Orion nebula with the Trapezium stars; Sigma Orionis, a multiple star system....

Clear skies, and enjoy!

Stephan

[Ben the Ignorant]

Around 20:00 and 21:00, the Andromeda Galaxy, that's a no-brainer. NGC 7662, a small but exceedingly bright planetary (shell) nebula in Andromeda. The two large and prominent globular clusters M15 and M2, the three light-pollution-piercing open clusters in Auriga, M36, M37 and M38. They're so large the low-power view may actually be better in the finder if it's a 50mm and sky brightness is not too strong. How many people (read: streetlamps) in your city?

The oversize M27 planetary nebula in Vulpecula (the brighter stars in neighboring constellation Sagitta lead to it better than the faint ones in Vulpecula). Between Gamma Andromeda, a splendid and easily split colorful double, and Algol in southern Perseus, is M34, a coarse and luminous open cluster. In Perseus M76 is another large and not faint but shapeless planetary nebula.

Around 22:00 and 23:00, the broad open M35 cluster in Gemini. Staying in that constellation, another small but light-pollution-piercing planetary nebula, NGC 2392. And of course the gigantic M42 nebula in Orion. By that time the two famous M81 and M82 galaxies in Ursa Major might be high enough to be worth a look, too.

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

This is great guys!  It really does help to know what are the best obtainable targets to start with.....rather than guessing and wondering if it is too dim or I am just missing them and need to look a little longer to find it.

 

[Charic]

5 hours ago, Hobbes_Is_Real said:

What is your favorite Winter DSO that you would recommend to a newbie'ish user with an 8" Dob on the outskirts of LP city area?

 

If you can avoid direct eye contact with any  light pollution by hiding in the shadows, that may help you see more, but get that scope to a darker site by car, and you'll  just get confused as to how many stars there really are up there, even masking  to some degree the stars that you can easily see from the suburbs, that's the difference.

It's a chore getting there, but well worth it, as I have a very limited horizon from my patch, but the latest LED street lighting has made a vast improvement to my environment, so I'm hoping  that its possible to see more from the same site this year, well more of the same patch of sky, unless I drive out.

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

I have a nice park with no street lights about 4 miles out in the country beyond the nearest neighbor hood.  I know it is not that far, but you can easily 2-3x more with the naked eye than at my house a few miles away. Can even see a faint Milky Way.  This is where I go when my wife comes or someone else that I know won't spend too much time out there.

I am going to spend an afternoon scouting out several clear cuts at the top of our nearest mountain, only about 15 miles drive, to find a flat spot next to a logging road (no traffic at all) for those longer nights.

So here is how my LP breaks down according to https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ 

• House:  12.04
• Park:      1.9500  (4 miles away)
• Mountain: 0.2962 (15 miles away)

[Nyctimene]

The first value corresponds to an "orange" zone, the second to a convenient "green" one; and the mountain top location to a very promising "blue" location, where you might put even your 35 mm eyepiece to good use - faint  extended nebulae and galaxies are within your reach with an exit pupil of around 6 mm diameter (provided your dark adapted pupils open up  to 6 mm, or more). I'd recommend a UHC filter as a useful addition to your equipment (perhaps a nice Christmas gift idea).

8" f/6 Dobsonians luckily are rather easy to transport by car; so enjoy your nearby dark sky areas.

Stephan

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

Tonight and tomorrow night will be my first time I can look for DSO since I bought my telescope and my last chance for at least 1-2 weeks due to clouds/rain.  

I have taken all of the suggestions so far and put them into a Word Doc.  I will continue to work on this list and add any additional suggestions in this thread and as I figure out the best order to organize an observation evening, any additional helpful notes (i.e. tips on star hopping to find), and repost updated versions as I fine tune this.  I find as a newbie I waste so much time trying to figure out what is possible to see and then jumping back and forth across the sky trying to figure where they are.  This will be a great reference for me and think it might help other newbies in more LP areas too.  

I think I will do a similar list for each general season (Spring / Summer / Fall) as they roll around for the next year and post them too.

Newbie Light Pollution DSO List.docx

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

Well....I went out for my first "real" night looking for DSOs.  Thanks to the suggestions here I was able to have a successful evening with some sort of game plan of what I wanted to find and see.  Amazing how much I was able to learn in just one evening.

Since it was around 33 degrees, I did not go up on the mountain for concern of possible ice on the roads up there.  So I went to the park 4 miles out of town.  I have read that the moon can be just as devastating to DSO as LP of a city.  With the moon at more than 1/2 full, it really did light up the sky.  

The first DSO I looked for was the obvious..... Andromeda Galaxy.  Due to how close it was to the moon it looked more fuzzy than detailed. Pretty much like this......but I was just thrilled I found it. LOL.  But the cool thing was as I was watching......I actually saw a satellite cross in front of the galaxy while looking through the telescope....that was really cool, and don't expect I will ever see that again.

I then tried to look for NGC 7662.  With the naked eye I could star hope and see where I needed to look.  But looking through EZ Finder II sight, though I have it fined tuned to be right on target, I couldn't see the faint stars needed to star hop while looking through it.  I decided to try again when I have darker skies.

I did find M15 start cluster too.  It was nice but again I believe not as detailed due to the LP / Moon.

I then looked for M57 Ring Nebula, which thanks to Vega and the Triangle, it was really really easy to find.

Then I M27 Dumbbell Nebula.  That one was more challenging, again due to star hopping with fainter stars.....but I was able to find it.

Then I had the challenge with my focuser (posted here and now fixed) so I called it an evening (plus it was getting darn cold).

A very successful first DSO attempt evening, IMHO.

Thank you all for your help!

 

 

 

[Ben the Ignorant]

Cool but you'd have more success with a magnifying finder. From within a city a 50mm might be necessary but it might prove confusing under a dark sky. A 30mm shouldn't show too many stars from the countryside but could show too few in a city, especially when aiming low.

Fitting two finders on the scope is overkill, but the 50mm has two advantages. It can be stopped down, or left at full aperture and reveal some bright deep-space targets directly. Orion has 8x40 finders that split the difference but a 9x50 is still the best bet to locate some objects directly even when some moonlight is interfering.

M15 and M2 can be seen in a 9x50 finder.