Another few fuzzies off the list.

[oldfruit]

Last night i decided to try my luck at hunting down some a couple of the more elusive targets.

I was observing from my back garden which is near the edge of town but i can sometimes just make out the milky way so light pollution is not too bad.

The sky was really clear to start with so after i had left the scope out to cool i ventured out and pointed the scope to an old favourite M57. I never tire of looking at the ring nebula and i think it is a great target for less experienced observers like myself. Using my 12 mm (83x) eyepiece i could clearly see the large doughnut ring and the central hole was really clear.

I then turned to M31 and the bright core was very clear in my 32mm (31x) and the faint glow around the core extended across most of the field of view. I could also see M32 glowing softly plus M110. What a treat. 3 galaxies in the same field of view.

Now i decided to try something a bit more challenging.

The ghost of mirach(NGC 404) was something i had read about but i wanted to see it. Using the 32mm eyepiece i centred on the star and looked and after a couple of seconds there it was! Very faint but i could definately see it. So i upped the magnification to 66x and placed the star just out of the field of view which was better as the glare from it was overpowering the galaxy a little. With the star out of the way the view was better though still faint and i could make out no detail, just a faint glow.

Next on my list was M76 the little dumbell.

I found this one a bit harder to find. I pointed the scope where i thought it should be and looked but struggled to see anything. Just a few faint stars so i checked my book and looked again, using the 32mm i could just make out a small faint smudge. So i deceide to use my 10mm (100x) and sure enough there she was. Looking elongated and after looking for a few moments i could just make out that it was slightly pinched towards the middle. I could not make out much detail to be honest but was just glad to have found it.

At this point the sky started to get a little hazy so that was me done for the night, but i went in happy and was able to cross a couple more of those faint fuzzies off my list.

Clear skies.

Mark.

[Altair40]

Thanks for that post - interesting. I'd not heard of NGC 404 before. I'll have to have a look around the DSO catalogues and see what I can find in terms of realistic targets.

You out apeture me!

[oldfruit]

Aperture matters but people can easily find lots of interesting objects with smaller scopes. I was just lucky, right scope for me, right place, right time.

To be honest i am just happy to be able to get decent views with the equipment that i have but am waiting for the day that i get to look at something through a large scope at a star party or something.

Just out of interest what scope are you using Altair?

[Altair40]

Sorry, I should put this in my signature. It's a 130mm Skywatcher newt and I tend to use a pair of 10 by 50 bino's to get me roughly on target. The red dot finder is sort of useful but I could probably do with some magnification on a spotter scope...

I've had this scope less than a month and I'm pretty impressed with it considering the apeture size.

If I ever do get to a star party, I'd offer to help transport/set up in exchange for a look!

[oldfruit]

You should easily find the targets i found in you scope and many many more besides. To be honest the scope you have does get some good reviews from the more experienced users on here.

I have not been to a star party myself as yet, though i did visit a astro meet at Wisbech up the road from me a month or two ago but it was cloudy so noone was observing but i did see some impressive kit. I think a few others on here sometimes share transport to these events as they are regulars and know eachother either in person or from this forum. Friendly bunch on SGL.