Steve L's Beginner tour of the Messier Catalogue.

[Steve Loy]

So, My observatory is now up and running and the other night saw my first foray into trying it out.

My first session was spent mostly calibrating and tweaking but I did manage to point at M3 and grab a screenshot.

It then occurred to me that as a starter project, to get used to the equipment and setting etc, I should start simple, and  what could be more simple that trying to work my way through the messier objects in turn?

I realise most of you will have seen the M objects hundreds of times and that they may hold little value anymore, but, I wonder if it would be ok for me to document my journey through the catalogue here? (maybe even putting them in order by reserving posts for objects I need to go back to?)

Either way, here is the first Screengrab of my first EEVA session from my New Obs.

 

M3 - Globular cluster

[cajen2]

Good idea, Steve. I look forward to the next installment....

[Martin Meredith]

I think this thread will be very useful to lots of people wondering what is possible with EEVA, and what are the best settings for various types of DSO. I definitely have evolved different settings for different DSO types e.g. I find something like a log stretch works well with globular clusters.

I probably haven't seen all the M objects in EEVA-mode as I tend to visit them if they're close to some other object I'm looking for, or to check alignment (I hope Messier would have approved...). Only this year did I see M78 for the first time (glorious in colour).

Martin

 

 

[Steve Loy]

Well that’s good to hear. 
My plan is to transition from SLL to Jocular at some point soon, so I can add in all the annotations and info about the pics. (which I am sure is going to be a further learning experience. )