Non Messier Objects?

[Manok101]

I was just wondering how difficult the non messier catalogs were to locate and see. I'm currently aware of three catalogs not part of (and am also aware that they overlap sometimes). The Caldwell, IC, and NGC, just browsing through them seemed like I'd need fairly dark skies to find a lot of them. Any advice? I've got an Orion XT4.5.

[pvaz]

The Caldwell haves some objects that are observable with 4.5" but it won't be enough for many. Same goes for the Herschel 400 list as even on bigger scopes many of this are nothing but a faint tiny smudge.

NGC and IC basically include everything.

[Manok101]

I plan on getting a 10" scope sometime later this year, how much better would viewing these be?

[pvaz]

For example M13 looks like a ball of light on a small scope. On a 10" you should be able to see it's actually a ball of countless stars and see many individual stars in it. M51 may show 2 spiral arms under really dark skies (I see them on my 8" when the conditions are good to excellent). M42 should show a lot more detail in the center region and display a shade of green. And so on for most messier's and brightest NGCs.

Besides those improvements you'll be able to detect a huge number of small faint smudges (galaxies) that you can't even detect with a smaller scope.

Try this simulator and play with the aperture parameter:

Eyepiece Simulator - Dobsonian Telescope Community MyDob.co.uk

[sixela]

If you want a list with cues about which objects are interesting and/or visible in poor skies or small scopes, try Vic Menard's 400 list:

http://sctscopes.net/Vic_Menard_400_List.zip

the ones labeled Sky Quality "4" are obviously easier than Einstein's Cross .

[ollypenrice]

This is the 'bible' -

Night Sky Observer's Guide by George Kepple, Glenn Sanner, Jenni Kay amd Ian Cooper

I have the two N hemisphere volumes. It takes you down to objects which need a twenty inch but includes estimates of what to expect in different apertures, down to 4 inch.

Plenty to go at! A 10 inch gets quite a few of the objects, for sure.

Olly