M27 Dumbbell nebula

[lmao_37]

I went looking for M27 last night and i didnt find it, according to all the books i have read its really easy to find (with a samll telescope) i tried the 2 ways suggested in this month Astronomy now i also looked in a couple of books then i even set the RA and DEC circles on my scope mount, i found M57 and set them to the ra+dec for this target and then tried to find M27 and found nothing

[Talitha]

Try this.. put in the widest fov ep you have. Then place Gamma Sagittae into the western side of the fov and slowly glide up the 20 hour RA line... you'll hit M27 in just a bit over 3 degrees.

Just a thought.. how's your light pollution, and did you try this when there was a lot of moonwash present? I'm not sure how M27 stands up to bad transparency.

[Doc]

M27 is larger then M57 so you would think easier to see. I infact found it harder as well. It's surface brightness covers a bigger area hence it does not stand out so easy.

Once you have found it the second time it's dead easy.

[ashenlight]

Carol has hit the nail on the head here, I've spent a few nights feeling so frustrated not being able to find anything - no wonder, I had the 10mm eyepiece in. Switched to the 25mm, and found M13 in about 10 mins. Amazing - managed to loose it when I wanted to hop up to higher mag though, I think I made bit too much of a jump. I'd imagine these kind of objects are best in a wide FOV anyway. Start with the heighest eyepiece number you have and work down slowly, just like Carol said

Amanda

[lmao_37]

thanks guys, i did have a 25 mm eye piece in and i looked and i looked and i didnt see it, but thanks for the tips i will have a look the next time i get a chance to use my scope, its been six months since i last had a day off on a weekend and had a clear sky but now i have the chance i will be using it again

[joanlofe]

My answer arrives a bit late, but it may be useful for someone in the future. M27 is dead easy to find if you point to 14 Vulpeculae first. This star is in the center of an "M" shaped asterism, visible with naked eye. Place this star in the center of your fov and move your field slowly to the south, at constant RA. You will find M27 a bit further than the diameter of full moon. Take a look at the photos here, I found them very helpful. Good luck!

[earth titan]

I have to say, the best bits of kit in my arsenal are my telrad and a 40mm eyepiece.

Put yourself in roughly the right place with the telrad or rdf, then look through the ep (I gave up with finder scopes a long time ago). I always look for the least sharp object in the fov then assume this is the target. Stars will be sharp where as you are after the faint fuzzies.

[asteria]

Averted vision is very helpful with this object. It will actually appear brighter if you look away from the centre of the field of view. It will seem to appear in the corner of your eye. It will look like a brightish grey patch. There's a bit of an art to finding these objects. Good luck.

[GJBC]

largest eyepiece you got is always best to start with then change eyepieces once centred I use my 40 mm to find it then go in until I start to loose clarity due to atmosphere or magnification.