what to observe?

[judebox11]

Hi, I've an 8 inch skywatcher dobsonian and Its been a great tool, Hercules globular and ring nebula etc look amazing compared to my old 114mm.

Now I'm wondering what DSOs would show colour/structure in an 8 inch. I tried NGC 7662 blue snowball and it looked a bit blue, what have you seen colour in?

Galaxies with structure would also be cool, I heard Needle galaxy shows a dust lane. I live in bortle 3 in Ireland

[Stu]

The near full moon will mean you won't have the full benefit from the skies at the moment, which will make it hard to get much detail on DSOs

That said, you could try the Blinking Planetary NGC6826 which has a nice green colour to it.

[judebox11]

12 minutes ago, Stu said:

The near full moon will mean you won't have the full benefit from the skies at the moment, which will make it hard to get much detail on DSOs

That said, you could try the Blinking Planetary NGC6826 which has a nice green colour to it.

I looked at NGC 6826 a few weeks ago (cant remember if there was a moon) it looked grey to me but the central star was obvious

[Rob Sellent]

16 hours ago, judebox11 said:

Now I'm wondering what DSOs would show colour/structure in an 8 inch....I looked at NGC 6826 a few weeks ago...it looked grey to me

Rather than being solely a function of aperture, seeing colour in DSOs is predominantly a function of the eyes' sensitivity which differs in each individual. While some observers may see hints of colour in brighter emission nebulae, for example, others won't see any colour regardless of how big their telescope. My advice, then, is to use fairly low powers in your 8" and to observe the brighter regions of nebulae per se and see if you see any colour.

Clear skies 😀

Edited September 15, 2019 by Rob Sellent

[mikeDnight]

The Orion nebula appears green in a 4" and the colour intensifies as aperture increases, especially when you're well dark adapted. Also, the double cluster in Perseus is a colourful and pleasing object to study. One of the pass times I enjoy, is choosing a constellation, and examining each of its more obvious stars for binaries and their contrasting colours. 

[joe aguiar]

get a good book map and a plainphere and u should be planning what to view couple hrs before it get dark. I norm try to see few to several item in the same constellation then try another one. and if its in the west part of the sky do that first since it will set first. cause once that's gone you will have to wait till next year. on a day to day time frame u have 2 min less each dat to look at that area until finally its gone for the year

joejaguar