Bagged my first Messier, M31

[carldr]

Hi all,

Finally got a break in the clouds, and spent a couple of hours outside. I'd spent the last month or so viewing the moon and Jupiter, so I thought tonight, with no moon in sight, I'd try and find a couple of other objects.

I very quickly found M31, which was really exciting even though I couldn't really see any detail. I don't know if that was down to me or the limitations of my setup though, but whatever eyepiece I used I couldn't resolve it to more than a blur in the sky. I'll probably try again and see if I can do any better.

Is that expected from my 130EQ?

After that, I tried to find Comet Hartley 2, but whatever I did, I just couldn't put any of Cassiopeia's stars in the eyepiece (or more likely, I could, but then couldn't work out what I was looking at, so my attempts at star hopping failed. The quantity of stars I could see was amazing.)

By the time I started looking for it, it was very high in the sky, and couldn't accurately judge just where the telescope was pointing without lying on the ground on my back, from where I couldn't really adjust anything!

So, after an hour, and making myself motion sick, I gave up - I'll definitely give it another go the next time I'm out though!

Regards,

Carl.

[al55]

Nice one on M31, don't expect to see too much from it, was my first one too. Find Cassiopea hard to find anything because theres so much up there, but i suppose we will learn in time.

[oldfruit]

Hi, dont be too disappointed at not finding the comet as i have been reading on here that even some of the more experienced observers have struggled to find it and those that have found it disappointing to look at now but hopefully it will be better when it`s brighter.

Nice that you found M31. My first look was the same and i could not make out any detail but still interesting to look at.