M81/82

[Kain]

Ok, I'm going to jump the gun abit tonight and have a look for these two! I know roughly where they are from the dipper so can anyone give me some pointers on what I'm actually looking for in the eyepiece?

With the ring nebula, I wouldn't of had a clue it would look like a blue smudge lol.

Cheers guys

Kain

[Andrew]

Hi Kain,

M82 is sometimes described as cigar shaped (i.e. longer than it is wide) kind of like a thick splinter. M81 is brighter and about 2/3 of a degree away. It’s sort of oval shaped, but will probably look round since only the core will be visible. I had a look at them a couple of nights ago and was quite surprised at how bright they were relative to most other Messier galaxies. They’re some of the few galaxies that I’ve managed to find just by pointing the scope in roughly the right location and scanning around without star hopping. They should be visible without using averted vision. Once you catch a glimpse of one they’ll suddenly be obvious.

Good luck!

Andrew

[Kain]

Thanks Andrew.

I take it a high mag EP isn't really important IIRC?

Kain

[Kain]

Doesn't look like it will matter anyway, high level thin cirrus is halting proceedings... At the moon anyway!

Kain

[FLO]

I take it a high mag EP isn't really important IIRC?

No,

Not important: