Can someone put me out of my misery please

[GordonCopestake]

Tried all last night to see M51, but for the life of me i just couldn't see it. Not sure if it was my aperture that was too small, or my light pollution was too high. Took a wide angle 30 second exposure of Ursa Major just to confirm to myself that i couldn't see it. Can someone confirm that i was even looking in the right place!

I thought it was just off Alkaid, the tail of the plough, and in my 30 second exposure i can see 3 points, but which one is it?  A, B, C or am i no where near?

It's harder to see on this resized image, but I hope you get the idea.

I know that there are loads of others here too (M106, M63, M97, M108, M94, M40) but it just narked me that i couldn't find M51

[geppetto]

Hmmm

M51 can be a trial to see, very low level unless the sky is realy dark.

On your image, "a" is the nearest but I think M51 is further out from "a" towards a line drawn between "b-c"

If that makes any sense :?

[GordonCopestake]

At least i know im not going mad by not being able to see it. Hoped it would have shown at 30 seconds though

[Ambermile]

Yup - I think it's none of the above... but close. If you stretch your original you do actually have it there - between c and b but slightly up a touch.

arthur

[Ambermile]

doubled - sorry :oops:

[Astroman]

One tip I give people trying to find M51 is it's a LOT smaller than you think. Keep looking, you'll find it.