Galaxies all over!

[Kon]

After reading @John post earlier this evening (and @Pixies recommendation) I was inspired to look at some galaxies at Leo and Virgo! As I newbie in the hobby I had never visited them. I had a look at Turn Left at Orion and I was amazed to see all these galaxies together, and i made a plan to visit these areas. I took out my 8" Dob and it did not disappoint. I started with Leo since it was getting S to my horizon. Looking at the Leo Triplet I got goosebumps. Three elongated smudges almost fitting in my FOV of the 25mm EP (I got my wife out of bed, to show her; luckily she enjoyed it). I have never seen anything like that. I managed to also see M105, NGC3384, M96, M95, NGC3227 (not sure about 26 since it was an elongated smudge without much definition), NGC3596. Wherever I hovered you just found little smudges of light. I then moved to M86 and M87  and that blew my mind off! Smudges everywhere, I lost track of what I managed to see but I just kept hovering around looking at smudges of light appearing.  The viewing was not the best in the end with some light haze coming in.

Thanks guys for your reports (very inspirational to get me out tonight to look at something different) and suggestions! I will definitely revisit these two constellations.

[John]

Excellent report - so much to see in that part of the sky !

I get goosebumps when looking at these faint smudges of light thinking how far and for how long the photons have travelled before hitting my mirrors and getting deflected into my eye

 

 

[Kon]

8 hours ago, John said:

Excellent report - so much to see in that part of the sky !

I get goosebumps when looking at these faint smudges of light thinking how far and for how long the photons have travelled before hitting my mirrors and getting deflected into my eye

I totally agree. I am also surprised that fairly standard telescopes (not talking multimillion setups) can reveal such jewels in the sky.

[Waddensky]

Lovely report, thanks! The Virgo cluster is mesmerising, all those distant smudges, each hosting billions of stars... Beautiful.

[Littleguy80]

Ace report. I love the sense of excitement at seeing these galaxies for the first time  

[Kon]

2 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Ace report. I love the sense of excitement at seeing these galaxies for the first time

I am loving every aspect of the hobby so far and this forum has some great suggestions. I sometimes feel that the more experienced members might feel 'so what' but their comments are always very supportive and encouraging.

[Littleguy80]

Just now, Kon said:

I am loving every aspect of the hobby so far and this forum has some great suggestions. I sometimes feel that the more experienced members might feel 'so what' but their comments are always very supportive and encouraging.

I personally really enjoy reading the reports of people starting out. It’s easy to take seeing these objects for granted when you’ve been doing it awhile. It’s a great reminder of how lucky we are to be able to see the night sky like this  

[Epick Crom]

Great report Kon! Sounds amazing, I am waiting in anticipation of getting a clear night so I can observe this region of sky. I've also never seen any of the galaxies you guys are mentioning, the anticipation is killing me! It's been over a week of overcast skies with more on the way😭 Oh well I can read your reports and just imagine how awesome it must be until my time comes to observe! Clear skies 👍

[Stardaze]

Great to see these firsts. I had my first year galaxy hunting around Leo too last year and so it's good to see that you've found them quite easily there, I don't think it happened for me straight away. 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Stardaze

[Kon]

22 minutes ago, Epick Crom said:

Great report Kon! Sounds amazing, I am waiting in anticipation of getting a clear night so I can observe this region of sky. I've also never seen any of the galaxies you guys are mentioning, the anticipation is killing me! It's been over a week of overcast skies with more on the way😭 Oh well I can read your reports and just imagine how awesome it must be until my time comes to observe! Clear skies

I am sure you will get to see them soon. I am usually jealous of your reports since you seem to have clear skies more often than us. 

[Kon]

25 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

Great to see these firsts. I had my first year galaxy hunting around Leo too last year and so it's good to see that you've found them quite easily there, I don't think it happened for me straight away. 

Yes it was a great night; i think it helps that I am under relatively dark skies (bortle 4).

[Epick Crom]

32 minutes ago, Kon said:

I am sure you will get to see them soon. I am usually jealous of your reports since you seem to have clear skies more often than us. 

Yeah true😀. In summer this is the case, clear skies over here. Unfortunately we have transitioned into Autumn which along with Winter is bad for observing as it is our rainy season here. It has been a really cloudy and rainy start to Autumn this year unfortunately 😣

[Spile]

Thank you, those are on my to do list. I did manage to split Gamma Leo (Y+Y an excellent 5*) and Leo 88 (Y+B 4*) while I was in your part of the sky last night.

The rest of my evening was spent In Auriga (M36, M38 and the planetary looking M37) plus a split of Phi Aur (Y+B 4*).

[MercianDabbler]

Nice report. Glad to see that some folks have had some decent clear skies. Not so here - was promised a decent few hours on Sunday evening and it was clear during twighlight so I was ready with the scope fully assembled, power leads and all. Cloud rolled in so I didn't even get to finish polar alignment. I got a chair and waited outside for a good while to see if it would clear but no joy. CO was still saying clear so I left it all set up and went indoors. An episode of Red Dwarf... still cloudy... Star Trek... nope. Finally gave up when CO decided to agree that it really was cloudy.

[Nik271]

On 09/03/2021 at 00:11, Kon said:

After reading @John post earlier this evening (and @Pixies recommendation) I was inspired to look at some galaxies at Leo and Virgo! As I newbie in the hobby I had never visited them. I had a look at Turn Left at Orion and I was amazed to see all these galaxies together, and i made a plan to visit these areas. I took out my 8" Dob and it did not disappoint. I started with Leo since it was getting S to my horizon. Looking at the Leo Triplet I got goosebumps. Three elongated smudges almost fitting in my FOV of the 25mm EP (I got my wife out of bed, to show her; luckily she enjoyed it). I have never seen anything like that. I managed to also see M105, NGC3384, M96, M95, NGC3227 (not sure about 26 since it was an elongated smudge without much definition), NGC3596. Wherever I hovered you just found little smudges of light. I then moved to M86 and M87  and that blew my mind off! Smudges everywhere, I lost track of what I managed to see but I just kept hovering around looking at smudges of light appearing.  The viewing was not the best in the end with some light haze coming in.

Thanks guys for your reports (very inspirational to get me out tonight to look at something different) and suggestions! I will definitely revisit these two constellations.

 

That's a lovely observing session! Your 8inch Dob is a perfect instrument for galaxies and that area around M86 and M87 is fantastic, it's the famous Virgo cluster. Check out the galaxy group called Markarian's chain, they should show very nicely in your scope.  

 

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

So far I havent been very successful looking for Galaxys I hope to change that this "season" With my 12" dob and 17.5 morpheus. I am viewing from bortle 6 ish skies. Not ideal but hopefully I can find some of them.