Owl Nebula....

[Beulah]

Reporting from my neck of the woods.. ...

I wasn't planning to find this strange nebula (owl nebula) last night, although after starting with Saturn and three moons Titan, Dione and Rhea, I decided to go sniffing around Ursa Major to find M81 & M82.

Didn't find those galaxies, and wondered if it was due to being in the front garden, at 10:30pm, with the living room light on (although I was faced away from that source...and somebody's annoying side porch light), I did wonder whether it was insufficient ambient "darkness" that prevented me from seeing them.

I decided to slowly "nudge" my 8" Skywatcher 200p around Ursa Major and see what I could find...with a 25mm eyepiece, I found a small circular grey smudge that looked like somebody had placed a small grey veil over the night sky...thinking it was the lens itself, I replaced the 25mm with the 10mm and it was still there, although I couldn't see the "eyes" of the this nebula.

Quite ironic really- as M81 and M82 proved to be quite elusive - and this hard-to-find nebula was the third ever celestial body I have found.

As a relative newcomer to this, I also want to ask a question.

On higher magnificiation, Saturn seemed to "shimmer" in and out of resolution, as if I couldn't get my eyepiece to focus properly (I viewd it at around 10pm). Would this be due to air turbulence, as it was rather hot yesterday!

Thanks for reading this waffle..

[Andrew*]

No waffles at all, Sam,

thanks for sharign your observing.

Well done for getting the Owl. It's not the easiest of targets, but TBH neither is M81/2. I struggled over several nights to find them. What method do you use to locate targets?

Did you notice an elongated smudge near the Owl Nebula? There is galaxy M108 very nearby. It may have been in the same field with your 25mm eyepiece, but again maybe not.

At high power, planets will appear to wobble in and out of focus because the atmosphere is unstable. This effect is called "seeing" and also explains why stars twinkle. If seeing is too bad, you will be much less likely to see small details in objects and it's worth waiting for a still moment.

Andrew

[Talitha]

Congratulations Sam, nicely done!

Here's a great page which shows the different levels of seeing.

The Pickering Seeing Scale

[starscy]

I am not sure if M81 and M82 are considered difficult objects, but I was able to find both last night easily using 20x60 binoculars. They appeared relatively bright with some detail visible, but clearly M81 was brighter and larger in size.

[acey]

Difficulty is relative, and in comparison with most galaxies, M81/82 would count as easy, because they're big and bright (relatively speaking!). The Owl counts as one of the more difficult Messiers, but in terms of all the planetary nebulae in the sky, it's one of the easiest. Compared with finding Saturn, any deep-sky object is a challenge for the beginner, and worth a pat on the back.

For those without GOTO (like me), finding anything is a matter of star-hopping, and I know from experience that the key to this is having a good map. When I started out with binoculars I used a little Collins Gem book that only went down to about mag 5 (I think) but that was fine because I was finding things by sweeping, and as long as I got the rough area then I'd soon find bright objects. But if the object you're looking for is not the kind that leaps out at you as soon as you sweep past it, then you've got to be able to get the exact spot in your low-power eyepiece field of view. To do that, you need a map with enough detail that you can get close enough.

With my scope I initially used the Cambridge Star Atlas (mag 6), but I soon found this wasn't good enough. SkyAtlas (or a digital atlas like Cartes du Ciel) is the way to go.

The other thing I'd mention is sky quality. If you're at a light-polluted site then galaxies are a lot harder to see (as are the stars that guide you to your target). From a dark site you can see many of the Messiers in a 50mm finder. From a light polluted one it can be a challenge seeing any.

Andrew

[Beulah]

Thank you for your thoughts, everyone.

Andrew, I did see M108 - I saw that before I saw the Owl Nebula. The way I am currently finding objects is to do a little every night - study maps in daylight, drawing diagrams, memorising the constellations and where objects of interest are, and gently nudging the telescope about until I see the object. Star hopping is a great way to observe!

Acey - where I live, the air is pretty clear, but it's the old back garden syndrome, I am afraid, bathroom lights, people with their intermittently on and off halogen porch lights. The air itself the last few nights has been deliciously clear after 11.00pm, but it's the ground level light pollution that gets me. The trick for me is to set the alarm for 1.00am...

Talitha, thank you for the seeing scale.

[Doc]

Strange as I find M81/82 easy but have really stuggled on the Owl Nebula, still not found it yet.

So well done on seeing it Sam.

M81/82 are quite hard to find as they seem to be on their own without any nearby markers. Star hopping to this pair is quite hard for beginners.

[acey]

Here's a star-hop for the Owl (M97) and M81/82:

Art Russell's Monthly Messier Star-Hop; May #1

[albedo0.39]

Acey - nice link to the Monthly Star Hop. Have bookmarked. With no "go to" I have to rely on stuff like this. Nice one

Thks

[Wayne Roberts]

i found M81/M82 last night (monday 11th) got a smudge but it was heavy winds and alot of light pollution. i guess someone was having a laugh at my expense, bit like that cloud that hovers over the scope and moves when u do........ maybe another night, friday for example \o/