Did i see M31?

[CaptPaul]

Hi last night i tried to find M31 with my 5" skywatcher 130pm, i found something but not sure what it was, could anyone help?

it was around the right area im still learning to find stuff so could have been quite far off i didnt use coordinates etc just a planisphere and a good old fasion search! (i used the square of pegasus then counted down i think it was 2 stars along the top branch towards cassopia coming of the great square sort of direction and there was two stars close together and i looked around the top one (sorry for bad discription))

i found a small grey smudge it was good ive never seen a small grey "astro smudge" before only found a few things like double stars and a double cluster so it was good but when i looked in my book it looked nothing like andromeda, i dont mean the fancy pics this had a pic through a small scope it looked like a star with blurry stretched edges, what i saw wasnt like this it was just a grey smudge.

are there any nebulea near by i could have found by mistake?

Thanks.

[Doc]

You found it I'm sure. There is nothing around there that your 130PM could detect that would be similar. There is M33 but thats in the opposite direction and I would say would be extremely dim in your scope.

So congratulations.

[CaptPaul]

Brilliant! thats my first proper Messier object then! Thanks!

[Lowstar]

Well spotted that man :).

[pvaz]

Brilliant! thats my first proper Messier object then! Thanks!

Well M110 is really close and looks grayish on my 8". M31 is a bit lower and looks bright yellowish and not that small, it nearly fills at least half of my FOV at 48x. More then half if I stare at it and get my eyes adapted.

Your description seams more like M110. Then again I'm a newbie myself... so I may be wrong.

[dark knight]

Difficult one to answer I'm afraid, it could easily be M110. Either way a celebration is in order as both are Messier. See if this helps

How to Find the Andromeda Galaxy: 5 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow

Carl

[CaptPaul]

Thanks for all the help i think i will have another look when this cloud shifts and see if what i saw was the same if i follow the steps provided, you never know i maybe able to add another number to my count! thanks guys!

[iamjulian]

It is likely that your reflector is reversing the image. If you look at a star map you see M31 in the middle, with M32 just below it slightly to the right, and M110 a bit further above it, slightly to the left.

Now look through the scope, M31 is the obvious of the 3. Just above and to the left (ie reversed from what you see on the star map) is M32. And if you have a dark night/dark skies/powerful scope you'll see M110 just below M31 and slightly to the right.

From my limited experience with a 6" reflector, if you can see M110, there is no way you will miss M31 and M32, both of which are clearly brighter. Hope that helps

[CaptPaul]

yeah that does help thanks ill get out and have another look.

[Doc]

Well M110 is really close and looks grayish on my 8". M31 is a bit lower and looks bright yellowish and not that small, it nearly fills at least half of my FOV at 48x. More then half if I stare at it and get my eyes adapted.

Your description seams more like M110. Then again I'm a newbie myself... so I may be wrong.

What you are describing here is M32.

If you look in your scope you will see M32 as a roundish smudge below is M31 big oval smudge then below this is M110 a dim oval smudge.

[The Warthog]

At the powers you were likely using, it is unlikely that you could have seen M32 or M110 and not seen M31. If you saw only one grey smudge, it was M31. It is possible with a scope that size and less-than-perfect skies to not be able to see M32 or M110 at all. I've done it lots of times.

[pvaz]

What you are describing here is M32.

If you look in your scope you will see M32 as a roundish smudge below is M31 big oval smudge then below this is M110 a dim oval smudge.

Yeah. From my good dark skies (I live in a vineyard zone with hollydays houses only) I can see 3 galaxies in that zone:

M31 - big, bright yellow center, then gets fainter and fainter as i look to the edges.

M32 - bright yellow, very small, looks like a star with a blur around.

Both fit in the FOV at 48x.

M110 - is a grayish oval smudge as you say, I have to actually move the scope up a bit from M31 to find it. I can't fit them all on FOV at 48x.

I only observed them twice, I'll give it another try with the lower power EP I finally received today, if it stops raining... :/