Naked Eye Orion Neb

[TopHouse]

Tonight was a strange night, I've been willing it to be clear since all in one go I got a telrad, a self centering eyepiece holder and a baader hyperion, I was dying to try the new toys.

Anyway, tonight seemed to be crystal clear, I suppose it's an experience thing that you learn different 'types' of clarity. Looking at the sky, the stars were lovely and clear and there was literally thousands of them.

My main mission was Andromeda, which, although disappointed me when i got it, I feel accomplished that I did, the Telrad is a miracle tool!

I did the pliades again tonight, simply because at the moment it's my favourite item.

Next, i had my confident head on, so I thought i'd go for orion nebula, so i'm looking at this chart I printed off, with telrad circles, I'm looking at the chart and the sky and orienting myself with it, looking where the nebula should be, i see a 'fuzziness' with the naked eye, I come inside and check on stellarium and sure enough, what i'm seeing is in the right place, so, my wife and i swing round, telrad onto the spot and sure enough, there's something there, saw the 3 'clusters' of stars but couldn't really make out any nebulosity, is this normal?

As the night progressed, i realised how deceptive the viewing actually was, the amount of wet in the air was unbelievable! When i brought the scope in at around 10:15pm it was wet through!

So, is it normal that a night can look at first instance to be a good one, even with a lot of apparent naked eye visibility but actually not be so good because of the moisture content, tried mars and even though i have the new baader hyperion I just couldn't get it as good as i've had previosly with standard antares plossls.

[Doc]

Weird if you can see the m42 naked eye, by viewing the nebula through your scope you should see loads of nebulosity. I personally think you was not looking at it. What scope btw?

[TopHouse]

It's an explorer 200p, it was definitely the right spot, what i could see naked eye was a 'smudginess' that when I checked was the 3 groups going down from NGC1981 to HIP26199, i telraded onto what I could see, then in the spotter scope I could define it into the three groups, but looking into the scope itself was just like 3 groups of stars.

[John]

M42 is quite obvious even in a small scope. It's another low power object though once you have found it some magnification is helpful to show the 4 stars (or 6 on a good night) of the Trapezium cluster at the nebulas heart. Try panning around with your lowest power eyepiece.

If there is a bright moon nearby it does wash out most of the nebulosity though.

[Doc]

Did you see the Trapezium of stars. Looks like a rhombus shape of 4 stars. This really stands out and is centered around the Orion Nebula. I don't understand your group of three stars.

[TopHouse]

3 groups of stars

[John]

I'm baffled that your scope is not showing you M42.You are clearly looking at the right part of the sky. Visually the contrast of the nebula is not a strong as the above picture but the fan shape of nebulosity and the dark lane with the Trapezium stars at the end of it should be quite distinct in a 200mm scope.

I'm not sure what to suggest - keep panning around that area with your lowest power eyepiece I guess.

[pvaz]

There's something wrong for sure. It looks exactly like this on my scope (8" too):

Stargazers Lounge - Talitha's Album: Deep Sky Sketches - Picture

Even on binos it looks the same but smaller. Use the lowest mag you have.

BTW, do you live/observe under heavy light pollution? That could explain it.

[John]

I've just had a thought and please don't take this the wrong way, but you are not observing with the tube cap on and just the small aperture cap removed by any chance ?.

Sorry to even mention it but that would explain why the nebulosity is so hard to see - it has the effect of reducing your scope to a 50mm one !.

[TopHouse]

ROFL no, and not any light pollution to speak of either, but as stated earlier the air was very very 'wet' although not obviously 'misty' we actually had pools of water on our garden furniture as if it had been raining, but it hadn't, wondering if it was some freak conditions or something since I wasn't aware that you can see that 'group' with the naked eye, my night eyes aren't fantastic and although I know it's reasonable to do so, i can not ever see the andromeda naked eye and i have to sort of tilt my head about to spot the pliades normally.

[Chris H]

If you can't see the nebula its got to be because your not looking in exactly the right place.

[yeti monster]

M42 is probably the easiest nebula to see. Even with really poor clarity and a lot of LP or a full moon, I can find it if there's no clouds in the way.

[lennoxlude]

when you're talking about the moisture could you see other details such as pleadias and other clusters as clearly as you normally do using your scope? because surely if it was anything to do with the moisture, then it would of effected your whole vision of everything, not just nebula. M42 is one of the easiest to spot, and you can normally see a little bit of nebulosity with just a pair of 10x50 binoculars.

[TopHouse]

Well, pleades was earlier in the night, and it was nice, but after the nebula thing I tried for mars and that was a complete bag of shy** compared to my previous views and if anything it should have been better bacause i just got the baader hyperion 8mm, it did go really strange, even the flags on the patio were wet as if it had been raining but it hadn't, and there were propper pools of water on the garden furniture, yet it wasn't misty. We get strange stuff like that here, think it's because we're a bit high up, this is a view from my house, the red lights on the horizon are winter hill tv mast 19 miles away (as the crow flies) Nice spot for a scope eh?

[yeti monster]

Where are you Tophouse? I think I'm the other side of Winterhill from you, over in Rossendale (or will be TOMORROW!)

[TopHouse]

Im sort of looking down on oldham (that's what the lights are on left of pic) (bet it's your windows i been looking in then!)

[yeti monster]

Ah, you'll be even nearer than I thought then.

[TopHouse]

Oldham, which the pic looks down on, has the second highest football stadium in prem or football league at 155 metres above sea level. my patio where I view from is 235 metres above sea level, only problem is, the back of the house faces roughly NW, I'd like it better if it faced the opposite way I think. Nice views though and the light poluution is quite minimal, and I only have to travel a short distance up the road and it's totally pitch black! All I need now are a couple of people in my area that i can learn from.