How on earth do I find M33????

[WayBig]

I've tried to locate M33 a number of times now without success.

I've tried extending a line from andromeda to Mirach, I've tried sweeping the whole area from the point of triangulum up to Mirach, but haven't seen it yet.

I have light pollution, but would have thought I'd pick up something in a 10inch dob.

Does anyone have any tips?

Are there any useful pointer stars that would tell me if I'm getting close?

Thanks

[Doc]

M33 is huge it is 69' x 42' in size and mag 5.7 but because of the size the surface brightness is only mag 14.2 hence very hard to spot.

You need dark skies and a very low powered eyepiece or better still binoculars.

With dark skies M33 just jumps out at you.

[lukebl]

As Mick say. It's huge. I can just about find it with 10x50 bins in my light-polluted sky. Through my 10" it isn't much better!

[WayBig]

Doh, if it's only mag 14 I doubt i'll find it from my current location. I can go down to around 12.

Maybe i'll try if we get a power cut this winter!!

[lukebl]

Doh, if it's only mag 14 I doubt i'll find it from my current location. I can go down to around 12.

Maybe i'll try if we get a power cut this winter!!

I find it easier through bins than my 10" scope, so you should be able to see it with a very low magnification.

[John]

M33 is an odd one I find. With my 10" I've seen it a few times but it's never more than a large, rather faint patch of nebulous light. But I can also find it quite easily on a dark night, with my 8x40 binoculars, if fact the binoculars are possibly better for viewing this galaxy than the much bigger scope is !.

[SiriusB]

Ditto what's already been said really.

Don't let moderate light pollution put you off, its possible: It shows up ok here in a 9x50 finder,& small scopes at low power.

Was always disappointing in a 12" Newt under dark skies in my younger years.

Oh yes, & wait till its nearly due south, altitude seems to make a bigger difference than normal for seeing m33, IMO.

[Hypernova]

I have found it very difficult to pick it out in my 8" dob even on the clearest nights. I feel that it is the narrow FOV of the standard eyepieces supplied with the scope (1.1 degrees), the large size of the galaxy and the low surface brightness. It makes it really hard to pick up the change in brightness between the galaxy and the background sky with such a setup, even more so if there is high cloud or light pollution nearby.

I find it far easier to spot in my 15x70s with their much wider 4.4 degree FOV. These can pick out the galaxy as a small smudge of light slightly smaller and quite a bit fainter than the core m31. Even with these the local weather conditions and LP make a huge difference in viewing.

I can't say though that I have ever spotted it in my 9x50 finder before, I think I need darker skies for that to happen. Though I have glimpsed m27 once or twice through it.

[umadog]

I find it by placing the outer edge of my second Telrad circle along a line between between Mothallah and Mirach. I place it 1/3rd of the way along that line travelling from Mothallah to Mirach. If you do that, M33 will be in the middle of the FOV of a low power eye piece.

WayBig, you don't say how much light pollution you have. I've spotted it from quite poor skies (zenith limiting magnitude of 4.5 or so, I think, but didn't check that night). From mag 4.5 to 5 skies it will look very faint. Like a patch of slightly brighter sky. From about mag 5.5 to 5.75 skies you start to notice spiral structure and see unevenness in the surface brightness. I'm fairly sure I saw NGC 604, the brightest HII region within M33, from such skies. All this is with a 12", views through you 10" will be very similar. A friend with an 8" reported spiral structure under the same skies.

[Moonshane]

I agree this is easier in my 15x70s than my scope at home. It was naked eye at a dark site I went to a little while ago and there was definite structure visible in the scope at that site.

this image Google Image Result for http://www.deepfield.at/images/gallery/img_m33_1024x768.jpg shows the 'rectangle' of brighter stars which helps me find M33. They are quite apparent in the bins and M33 is about the same distance opposite side of Mirach to M31.

Hope you find it.

[IvanT]

I too have trouble finding this target using both finder and goto. My next approach I think will be to dial in the coordinates manually using the setting circles and try a few framing subs to see if I've got it. Not sure if the approach will work everything else I've tried so far has failed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ollypenrice]

LP simply kills it.

From our very dark site it hardly seems to matter what you use because the view is curiously similar from 15x70s to the 20 inch. It is the only object I can think of which is like that! OK the 20 inch wins but you get a large, soft glow in pretty well anything. You can 'sense' it in a small finder, even, but detail is limited in all amateur scopes, I think.

Olly

[umadog]

If the background sky is similar in intensity to the object then you're going to be in trouble. I find M33 a particularly low contrast DSO, which probably would explain the effect you describe. The crab nebula is in this class too.

[WayBig]

I've found the crab, once, it's a bit easier to locate because its so close to a bright star.

Mr Messier must have had very good eyes, and the advantage of dark dark skies

[ollypenrice]

I used to find the Crab in Derbyshire but never saw M33 or M101. One thing that does make faint objects jump out is nodding the scope up and down or side to side. Movement attracts the eye.

Good luck!

Olly

[Monty86]

I've seen it a couple of times in a 6" Newt with moderate light pollution. The first time took a few minutes of faffing about but after that I knew what to look for - the 4 stars around it which form a distinct diamond shape. They are far more obvious than the galaxy itself and make for an easier target. If you draw a line from Andromeda through Mirach and beyond, you'll come to a bright star called Hamal which is almost exactly the same brightness as Mirach. Point your scope roughly half way between Hamal and Mirach and M33 won't be far away.

[Mark at Beaufort]

I remember undertaking the site survey at Lucksall for SGL4 star party and using the 15x70 binos to see how dark the site would be for the star party. The first object that I viewed was M33 and was clearly visible in the binos.

As they say the rest is history.

Therefore I recommend finding a reasonable dark site and use some binos.

Mark

[catburglar]

I've not tried for it in binoculars, but find it fairly easily in an 80mm scope at 18x from my suburban mag 4.5-5.0 skies. As always, the trick is knowing where to look.

Assuming your finder has around 5 degree FoV, this is how I would go about it.

Start at alpha trianguli- place it right at the eastern edge of the field. Just about centred in the finder should be a mag 6 orange star- place that in the same spot as alpha trianguli was and you should have M33 centred (or close) in a 1 degree field.

[RichardJBartlett]

I've always had difficulty with M33 - only managed to catch it a couple of times, so don't feel bad. A lot of it has to do with the sky conditions but I could see it with my 4.5" Dob under suburban skies.

It didn't look impressive at all, but at least I could say I've bagged it LOL