Bright DSO's

[Marcellus]

Hi All,

Am off out tonight to view the skies for the 3rd time using my new SW130P. I have so far had great views of the Moon, Saturn and some slightly less impressive views of Mars and Venus.... I've also been getting my bearings in the sky by learning the positions of stars and their constellations.

Last week I managed to find M13 - The great cluster in Hercule's, which I have to admit, wasn't that great from where I was standing. Purely down to the fact that my scope wasn't powerful enough to see anything more than a smudge in the sky. Ramped up to 216x with averted vision I managed to see faint individual stars which made me realise I wasn't just looking at a small cloud .

I realise I will be limited to viewing a handful of DSO's with my size scope, but my question is, which ones at this time of year will stand out the most. I'm not looking for hubble type images, as I know this is unrealistic, but a few interesting views to target tonight would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance!

[shaunster]

are you in a dark site or light polluted?

[pvaz]

With the moon as it is now, any DSOs look much worst then on a clear dark night.

That's one of the reasons I set myself to start doing the Lunar 100 list, as on this nights any DSO observing is quite limited. Still, this are some of the brightest you can find through your scope: M13, M92, M3, M5, M57, M81/82 and M51.

You can also check the open clusters in Cassiopeia if you stay up late (2/3am).

[NGC 1502]

Hi, well DSO's are tough this time of year with the light evenings. However, try the Beehive M44 using your lowest power, before it sinks too low in the west, or rising in the NE, M39, again with low power. Perhaps double stars may be best as it doesn't have to be fully dark for a good view. With the return of darker evenings in the Autumn you may be pleasantly surprised what can be seen thru your 130. Regards, Ed.

[Marcellus]

Hi,

I live in a light polluted area, but will be travelling to somewhere fairly dark... basically overhead skies are quite dark and there are no street lights or buildings nearby. There is a slight light haze on the horizon though.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Cheers

[acharris77]

Hey, this time of year with the lighter evenings and now esp the moonlight will always make DSO's tricky to view. I seen M13 last year on a moonless night with my 130p and to be honest with the 10mm, it was a grey smudge, but could make out the darker center to the slighty lighter ends.

Always give your eyes time to become night adapted and also the more you look at an object the more detail you will see as your eye adapts, and sometimes use adverted vision can help with details. But when August/september comes I will guarantee you will get some nice views with the 130p.

Also, bear in mind that most DSO's are fuzzy patches, smudges and not a lot of colour in them anyway, unless you get into imaging. The M42 in winter months look nice in the 130p, you will see the 4 stars of the trapezium and if no moon also some nebula around them. In images you see a bigger nebula cloud of colours, which will never be seen with visual observing.

Hope this helps.

[RikM]

I found the lunar 100 list quite fun to do. I'm up to 46/100.

Save the DSO's for when the moon's out of the way. You should get quite nice views of any of the ones in Pvaz's list. I don't think your 130 will be very different from my 150, and remember that as you ramp up the maginification, the actual brightness of the object you are observing diminishes because you are spreading the light over a larger image. I very rarelly use more then x150 on anything and for DSO's mostly x50 or x100 for small bright objects and x30 for larger ones.

Clear skies,

Rik