Getting to the milky way m25

[Dazraz]

Hi been stargazing now for 3 nights in total with my 8" Dobsonian and have spotted jupiter on all 3 occasions.

Now i want to try and get in to the milky way and nubulas.

If i am pushing on to quick please tell me , i have been looking at the stellerium software and on the nights jupiter has been up from my calculations the m25 is far to the right of jupiter at around 10pm and 11pm.

Do i just get on a star and follow down or over to the m25 ?

If i am making no sense at all then i do appolagise but at moment i am a total beginner and know none of the jargon etc etc .

Regards Daren

[John]

You just need your eyes to see the Milky Way - a scopes no good for it !.

I don't know if you have a red dot finder for your dobsonian but I would get one if you don't have one - they make pointing the scope in the general direction of deep sky objects (DSO's) a lot easier IMHO. You can then use a low powered eyepiece (say a 32mm plossl) to scan the area for the object you are looking for.

Use sky charts or Stellarium to find the general position of the DSO (ie: where to put your red dot !).

2 good Nebulae to start on are M57 - the famous Ring nebula in Lyra and M27, the Dumbell Nebula in Vulpecula (near the "head" end of Cygnus the swan). Have a read of others observing reports of these and other objects so you get an idea of what you should be looking for. M57 is very small and can be overlooked.

John

[Sparrow]

If you've got a good view of the East sky, M31 (Andromeda)is a good target and should show up as a good "fuzzy blob" in an 8" dob - what you'll actually be seeing is just the brighter core of the galaxy - with a 25" eyepiece the galaxy actually extends far beyond the FOV.

At 11pm tonight it will be about 60 degrees up from the horizon, and about 83 degrees East - easiest way to star hop to it is probably to find the square of Pegasus - find the left star of the square (Alpheratz), go left about 12 degrees and down a bit to find Mirach. Then go straight up about 8 degrees and to the left a bit - hopefully with a bit of luck you should get Andromeda in the FOV.

Good luck

John

[RichieP]

Now is the best time to see the Milky Way as its practically overhead. Just look up (assuming your light pollution ins't too bad and that your eyes are dark adapted enough) and you will see it as a pale milky band running from Cassiopea, through Cygnus and on to Aquila. You may need to avert you vision a little bit to make it out.

Viewing it through a scope with your lowest power eyepiece (or even better with binoculars) will resolve it into thousands upon thousands of stars. It seems to be to be thickest near Deneb the brightest star in Cygnus.