WOOHOO I Did Andromeda At Last

[TopHouse]

I got my telrad on wednesday, only had a chance to get the scope out tonight, printed a telrad chart off and had a go, finally found it, the thing is, the delight of finding it is slightly cancelled out by it being a bit..... disappointing? I can't base my experience on anything, but it looks really clear tonight, it's just a very faint smudge, before anyone tells me i'm not supposed to see any colour, yes, i know that, but i did think i'd get a little more definition.

I found it first with a 32mm EP, then dropped down to a 17, but still just an insignificant smudge, nowhere near as beautiful to look at as pliedes (sp) which so totally impresses me, is this normal? Is it always like that or is tonight actually a bit deceptive with regards seeing, naked eye i can see 100's of stars tonight and it does look really clear. Also, with a 200p, what would you say is the standard eyepiece for looking at stuff such as andromeda etc?

[John]

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is huge - 8x the diameter of the full moon, so lowest power, widest field of view is the way to go. What you were seeing was the central core of the galaxy. At low power you should be able to see the nearby M32 (looks like a fuzzy star close to M31) and, a bit further away, the eliptical galaxy M110 which is quite faint. I've seen hints of a dust lane in M31 with a 12" scope but no more than that. It's not the most impressive object I'd agree despite it's fame - M81 and M82 in Ursa Major are much more impressive IMHO.

Well done on finding M31 though.

[pvaz]

Yeah that's about it. It's a big wide cloud of light. The darker the sky the wider it gets but you can't really see spiral detail as in the photos.

Stargazers Lounge - Talitha's Album: Deep Sky Sketches

This sketches are the closest thing to how this objects look on my scope. Except the veil, it looks the same but it's so big that my lowest mag can't fit both parts in the same "frame".

[TopHouse]

Thanks for the really good replies, I suppose it's one of those things that doesn't live up to it's reputation, I was starting to get a bit disappointed, so I'm glad in a way that I saw what i saw.

[MishMich]

I was pretty disappointed too, when I first found it on my 102 SLT a few months back. Had to use averted vision to 'see' it.

M.

[Phil Fargaze]

I thought I had seen and done the Andromeda Galaxy years ago, that is until I saw it with a telescope in very dark skies. A real `wow` moment. I never realised how large it is. It`s never going to look like the glossy photo in the magazine, but it`s well worth the trip to a dark site.

[red dwalf]

the best i managed was a very light center with a smudge around it, first time i found it i was pleased i`d found it but it does look dull, but having tried it since i managed a slightly better view, i find it amazing just to realise at what you are looking at.

[Leegsi]

Just think how far the lights has travelled to see you.

Now that's impressive

[Doc]

How can it be Boring. It's 2.3 million light years away, just imagine what you are looking at. That light has took that long to reach you..

[alfingido]

Not so much what you see but what you are looking at, if that makes sense?

A nice wide view will show you the contrasting surrounding blackness making it clearer to get an impression of it's size.

Still one of my favourite views

Allan

[SkyExplorer]

Yeah I had the same feeling last Sunday when I went out with my scope (only the 4th time). I had tried to find Andromeda before but failed, however this time with a bit of contortionism with 200p dec and ra knobs I managed to found it (with the help of Stellarium). It was grey smudge of light in the middle of the EP - it was amazing to think that smudge was another galaxy.

I was very happy I found it, in fact I got the wife out to have a look as well.

I then went on to find M103 using "turn left at Orion" which was equally impressive !!

[alfingido]

Try to get a look at M81 and M82, both close together and should both fit in a 25 mm ep in your 200p.

P 80/81 in Turn Left at Orion

Allan

[vlebo]

2.3 million light years away @ 5879 billion miles per year I am just glad I can see anything at all.

[yeti monster]

The second time I saw Andromeda (last week) was better, I suppose mainly because I was no longer expecting to see a spiral armed galaxy, and because I took my time to absord it as much as I could whilst I sketched it.

Disappointing in one way but truely marvelous in so many more.

[James]

With a 10" scope from a dark sky I can susually see a couple of dust lanes and a bright patch to one side of the core. I think they'll be visible from a 200P but you'd need to be in dark skies.

If you look at a picture of M31 like SteveL's here you'll see the closer in of it's two companion galaxies above and slightly to the left of centre - it looks like it's still in the galaxy (you're field of view won't be big enough to see the further away one at the same time). If you look at the picture the dust lanes on the other side of M31 at the bottom are the most obvious in the eyepiece. I first saw them by accident when I had about 100x magnification and I'd moved my scope slightly. The view was an uninspiring all grey until I noticed the grey seemed to be undulating...

Additionally, on the left hand side of M31 in the picture about halfway from the core to the left edge is a brighter patch. This too can be seen.

This is based on having darkish skies though and details like this often take some practice to see. It seems a bit wierd to say your eye's have to have practice to see fainter details but it's true. Over time you'll become more attuned to seeing these things anyway. The easiest way probably to see detail is to start at the core and slowly pan out to the edge, with practive you'll see that the grey doesn't fade away smoothly...

James

PS Congrats on finding M31 - that's 3/4 of the battle won already...

[SkyExplorer]

I live where the sky is quiet light polluted (just inside the M25, so about a setting of 6 or 7 in Stellarium for viewing with the naked eye).

It was still an amazing site, I bet it even better in a dark sky.