Great Nebula in andromeda ?

[Dazraz]

went out tonight to find the great nebula in andromeda with a 8" dob and all i can see is a very feint misty blob. Is this the nebula or could i possibly be hitting on M 110 ?

Or is this all i will see of the great nubula with my scope and if so are there any other nebulas that have a bit more vision ?

Regards

[John]

I think you have seen M31, the Andromeda Galaxy (rather than nebula). In most scopes it appears as a misty blob as small to medium sized scopes can only really see the core of the galaxy - the surounding spiral arms need large aperture and a very clear night. M110 is much fainter, smaller and, while an 8" will show it, it takes a bit os seeing to detect it - averted vision (looking to one side, rather than directly at, an object) helps with this one.

With regards to other galaxies, most are faint but M81 and M82 in Ursa Major are relatively easy to see and look good. There are a number of galaxies in Leo that are well worth looking at in an 8" scope as well.

John

[albedo0.39]

If it helps, from Salisbury, my 16" showed as a bigger misty blob, but with some detail (i.e. the dust lanes)... I think a lot of it, is due to it's size. Certainly other galaxies look a little more impressive to my eyes (and as John pointed out) - M81, M82 are examples.

[ncjunk]

For me the best nebula would be M42 (what else??) which will become visable at more resonable times over the coming months. It is one that can be seen easily and with your scope you will be able to see some of the same structure that is captured in photos (but in the form or a grey mist).

I have not yet tried M81 and M82 visualy yet but they must be good...they are not very well placed at the moment for me to see them though.

Neil C

[mike.brightmore]

When I first started looking for deep sky objects (not that long ago) I got the book 'Turn Left at Orion' which was of tremendous help to me. It not only tells you where to find objects but also realistically what you can expect to see. It also explains in layman's terms what you are looking at and how the night sky changes. Very conveniently it is divided up into the four seasons so you know what are the best things to look for in Spring, Summer, Autumn etc. Worth its weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. The computer software 'Stellarium' gets a lot of good mentions here and I can heartily recommend that as well (free download from Stellarium ) but I would start with the book first.

[MartinB]

You will just be seeing the core. M31 is huge but the outer areas are very dim. Look for M32 much further out than you imagine and further still for M110. M31 images are very misleading and lead you to expect to see M32 within the outer galaxy.

With my 12" dob and mag5 skies I can just about make out some mistiness surrounding the core but haven't yet seen any dust lanes

[RobH]

As Martin says, you are just seeing the core.

M31 is actually pretty dissapointing visually through most scopes, but I did have a look at it through a 16 inch scope at the Salisbury star party and saw the dust lanes for the first time

Have a look at M13....it's pretty spectacular through most scopes.

Cheers

Rob

[iamjulian]

...Look for M32 much further out than you imagine and further still for M110....

Very true, that caught me out recently. In photographs, M32 is swallowed up by Andromeda, but through the scope, even at low magnification, M32 appears to be at the kind of distance you would expect to find M110. As others have explained, because you are only seeing the bright core of Andromeda, not all the bits that show up on long exposure photographs.

[albedo0.39]

but I did have a look at it through a 16 inch scope at the Salisbury star party and saw the dust lanes for the first time

Hi Rob - glad you remembered this, as it was my scope and I'd only just seen it for the first time a few mins prior.

Good to chat to you at Salisbury and appreciate all that imaging stuff a lot more now I've seen some of it in action.... sorry to have missed your talk, but was out on a mission of "vegetarian burger collection duty" from Darren but gather it went down a storm

[RobH]

Thanks Steve, I was pretty impressed with the view through your 16

I'm now thinking that a 16 inch newt OTA that I can also use as a dob might be the way forward as my next scope

Cheers

Rob