Hardest Messier object?

[Waddensky]

I struggled with M83 for quite a while, not because it isn't bright enough but because the low altitude makes it almost disappear due to atmospheric extinction. I finally managed to see it a few weeks ago with my 8" from a really dark spot (latitude 53 deg N, altitude just over 7 deg) but it was very, very subtle. Saw M74 on the same night, also not really standing out but a lot easier than M83.

I heard M83 is not that difficult and a beautiful sight when it rises high enough.

[Eastman]

M101 drove me mad ?, all those nights in my backyard with a 70mm achromatic refractor searching for hours and hours fighting a unwinnable battle. 2 years later under a dark sky with a 120mm refractor there she was, still a faint fuzzy. It's still a struggle for me.

[Arcturus D]

Quite a few of us have been there. It took me weeks to see this galaxy in an 8".

[Mark at Beaufort]

16 hours ago, Waddensky said:

I heard M83 is not that difficult and a beautiful sight when it rises high enough.

Last month I was in California on a mountain top close to the Lick Observatory. M83 was very easy in some 12x70 binoculars and even better in a 9.25 Celestron SCT.

 

[Kn4fty]

My nemesis is the Eagle Nebula. Try as I might, I just can't see the nebulosity. Thought I once saw a couple dark lanes with averted vision, but couldn't reproduce it for confirmation. But I will get it.

[Arcturus D]

In the Peak District I've seen M101 in a 4.5" Newtonian on a moonless night near the zenith. It's a very big, but faint galaxy. A 4 to 5mm exit pupil is key for the detection of M101.

M83 was also visible in the 4.5", but it is a very hard object due to its low altitude in the UK. 

For M83 I managed to see a glittering haze covering the area where the galaxy is located.

It is truly amazing what one can see with a 4.5" on a mooonless night in a dark sky location.