Not sure what I saw tonight. ?M32

[Daisydoo]

Tonight I was trying to locate M31 in Andromeda. I managed to star hop from Mirach to HIP 4436, but was unable to visualize HIP 3881 enough to make this final star hop. I moved he scope roughly to the area I thought I needed with the aid of the telrad. In the finderscope I noticed a very faint grey smudge. In the eyepiece it was small and circular in shape, it seemed difficult to focus and was better viewed with averted vision.

Could this have been M32?

If so I would have thought it would have been easy to locate M31 from it, but I couldn't.

[Steve922]

Almost certainly M31. M32 is not easy to see (although it IS rounder than M31) I assume you're using your lowest magnification?

Steve

[Daisydoo]

Thanks Steve.

In answer to your question, yes I was using my lowest magnification.

I was expecting M31 to be more elongated in shape so that is what confused me.

[waccoo]

Without a really dark sky, all you would see of M31 is an oval that is very close to a circle.

In a dark site, you should be able to see a faint glow that is quite large even in low power.

[Quatermass]

I have seen it several time now with my sky watcher 130p and its been a gray smudge but I have noticed after a lot of rain and then a clear sky it seems to be much clearer. Have upgraded to the sky watcher 200p due for delivery next week so hopefully that will give me a better view of it. Those deep sky objects are like celestial easter eggs!