Andromeda

[Lurker]

Just a small question.

Would I be able to see The Great Orion Nebula in colours with my XT 8 Dob Classic and Ethos 13mm Eyepiece, Or do you need some sort of filters to see colours? Because when I saw The Great Orion Nebula at the Astro club didn't see any colours on the nebula.

I still haven't seen Great Orion Nebula with my Scope yet.

[John]

Just a small question.

Would I be able to see The Great Orion Nebula in colours with my XT 8 Dob Classic and Ethos 13mm Eyepiece, Or do you need some sort of filters to see colours? Because when I saw The Great Orion Nebula at the Astro club didn't see any colours on the nebula.

I still haven't seen Great Orion Nebula with my Scope yet.

No - as I've said before, the Ethos is not "magic" I'm afraid. The best you might do, on a really dark night, is to see some hints if lime green in the nebulosity.

If you use filters (eg: O-III or UHC) you the nebulosity becomes a little more extensive but still no colour.

Personally I prefer the unfiltered view of M42.

[John]

....No - as I've said before, the Ethos is not "magic" I'm afraid. The best you might do, on a really dark night, is to see some hints if lime green in the nebulosity....

Sorry - that may have come across as a little abrupt

I'm just trying to be realistic here - these objects look just great in shades of grey and faint smudges are fascinating once you have an idea what they are and how far they are away

I wish the Ethos was "magic" - I could justify the cost easier to my wife that way

[marcdearn]

When i first looked for it it took me 3 nights and a great deal of frustration to find it...

When I found it it looked like a small cloud ...it was only by watching it and seeing that it didn't move relative to other stars that i was sure it was a galaxy

However, at SGL5 I saw a few other (mainly Virgo cluster) galaxies and they were far more impressive

The dark sky does make an enormous difference

[Lurker]

Ok, Thanks for clearing that up, My Ethos just arrived 1 hour ago, Holy **** it's massive.

So a professional telescope would be able to see the coloured Nebulas?

[John]

Ok, Thanks for clearing that up, My Ethos just arrived 1 hour ago, Holy **** it's massive.

So a professional telescope would be able to see the coloured Nebulas?

Yes - don't drop the Ethos on your foot - it will hurt !.

I don't think professional astronomers ever look through their scopes - it's all done with CCD's and other sensors capturing and analysing data these days

I had a 12" scope for a while and I could only see a hint of green in M42 plus something similar on M57 - the ring nebula.

After 30+ years in the hobby I've got used to the shades of greys now

[marcdearn]

Not really....not with your eyes

The eyes are not meant to pick up colour in low light levels

You see them in photo's because the camera works differently to your eyes

Longer exposure etc

also a lot of colour is put into the photos after their capture with PhotoShop etc

[DrNeb]

holy cow! the ethos is 400+ quid!

I'll stick at looking at the telvue plossl's and baader hyperions me thinks.

[Lurker]

holy cow! the ethos is 400+ quid!

I'll stick at looking at the telvue plossl's and baader hyperions me thinks.

Yeah alot of money, It's probably be a one off though, Unless, I'm going wow wow wow at every object I see then end up buying another Ethos

[old_eyes]

My method is too look for the great square in Pegasus then find the constellation of Andromeda which trails to the left/east follow along this to the second star (called Mirach) you should see another star just above Mirach the Andromeda galaxy is next to this. Use your 25mm ep and look for it between 6 and 7pm when it's highest in the sky. Good luck.

I use the same method as Chris. Find the great square of Pegusus. Go to the star in the upper left-hand corner (it becomes the top star of a diamond as Pegasus starts to set later in the evening). Count away from the square one bright star, two bright stars - that's Mirach. Turn right 90deg. Count 1 dimmer star and a second even dimmer and M31 is around there.

Realax and let your eye wander, but keep going along the line from Mirach through the two smaller stars and back again. Suddenly it's there as a small smudge of grey. Once you have seen it you can't stop seeing it, but the first time the brain does not seem to want to see it.

Once you know where it is, binoculars show it even better, and a widefield scope better still. But I must confess I couldn't find it in binos or scope until I had mastered finding it with the naked eye.

Now if it is up, it is my quick test for whether I am in for a good night observing. If I can see it immediately with the naked eye, it is worth hauling all the kit out .

old_eyes

[E621Keith]

There are two types of photo receptors (light sensor) in your eye. Cone types receptors can see colour, but they requires bright light and concentrated in the centre of your vision. Rod type receptors are much more sensitive, but only works in B+W. Rods are found outside of the fovea and provide your peripheral vision. This is why DSO appears grey and dim objects disappear if you look directly at them.

[callisto]

Yep, Andromeda can be seen as smudge with the naked eye ingood seeing. You'll see a bit more of the smudge at about x50. Even at low magnification you might get the associated other smudges of M110 and M32.

Best thing you could get now is a Terad finder and print off a a set of Telrad charts from the websites. This'll open a whole universe of Messiers up.

Welcome to the world of fuzzies!

Yup, I'll second that for the Telrad

[DrNeb]

the telrad sounds great... but i'd miss my current finder scope to be honest.. the stock one that comes with the skywatcher 10inch is quite awkward, but some of the views have convinced me to keep it. it's nice not to have to keep switching eye pieces when you've got a low mag spotter ontop.

my two cents anyway.

[John]

the telrad sounds great... but i'd miss my current finder scope to be honest.. the stock one that comes with the skywatcher 10inch is quite awkward, but some of the views have convinced me to keep it. it's nice not to have to keep switching eye pieces when you've got a low mag spotter ontop.

my two cents anyway.

It's great to have both :

[stevelcfc]

hi mate

ive got the same telescope and quite new to astronomy

found m31 myself for the first time just before xmas from light polluted skies ive got 34 street lights right next to my garden

the way i found it is go from the top left star of pegasus there are 3 bright star pointing towards persues, the middle star is called mirach look above mirach you will see a faint star carry on in that line about the same distance it is around there somewhere,but be carefull it just looks like a faint grey smudge very easy to miss

(the most exiting faint grey smudge i have ever seen)

i have a look every time i go out now which has,nt been many time just lately

hope that helps

[tryme]

i went to kenley last saturday and although the skys werent great we still saw a few things such as jupiter and its moon, uranus and a few stars.

One thing i did notice was they never changed the eye piece and they couldnt get the big scope working properly in the main observatory.