M42 - Orion Nebula - where?

[Daz Type-R]

Evening all.

Noticed about 20:00 the clouds had cleared, so popped out with the scope about 21:30 ish with the sole intention of finding M42. It's my second night out with the scope haveing only received it last Wednesday so was not expecting to find it easily.

Found Orions belt, moved the scope in the wrong direction (I will get the hang of things being "upside down" soon I hope), found Betelgeuse, moved in the opposite direct and found what I thought was orions "sword", 3 stars pointing down and slightly up from Saiph and Regal. Found all that using the finder scope, looked into the main viewer with my 25mm ep and just got 3 "groups" of stars (well only 2 groups would fit in the ep at once).

Now I though M42 was the middle group, so centered that, didn't look any different so stuck the 10mm ep in, just got the same group of stars but bigger, no cloud colour etc!!!

Where am i going wrong?

I was not expecting photos like you get on the web but I was expecting something better than that.

Any suggestions?

[Lurker]

The Nebula is in middle of the 3 stars below the Orion belt, You stated correctly.

But it should similuar to this picture, But only black and white.

The pictures you see " Pink Nebula " it's taken with a CCD camera and cannot see " Pink Nebulas " thru a scope.

[JAO]

Daz, Its sounds to me like you were not in the right part of the sky. With your 10mm in your scope M42 will be quite impressive, as you say not like the photos but still nice view. It might be worth checking the alignment on your finder.

[Moonshane]

it's the pink blob under the belt here

http://m8up.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/orion-constellation.jpg

make sure your finder is correctly aligned or it will drive you mad.

use Polaris as this won't move.

if you have not done this before then

1) get polaris in your finder

2) use your widest eyepiece 25mm and it may be in the eyepiece - you might just see the faint companion star

3) centre Polaris in the eyepiece

4) don't move the scope and adjust the finder until polaris is on the cross

5) check the eyepiece again to see it is still centred

6) you can then use your 10mm to fine tune but not really totally essential.

[Moonshane]

sorry, yes expect a gassy blue/green/grey mass of cloud shaped a little like a large moustache - you'll see four stars forming a rough kite shape (the Trapezium).

[Daz Type-R]

Cheers for the quick reply guys, I`m 99.5 % sure I was in the right place, the last picture that Lurker put up was what I saw but without the gas cloud, the formation of stars looked very, very similar.

Thought my scope could be alligned badly so found a fairly bright star, focused in on it and it was just a pinpoint of light, so slowly moved the focuser out hopeing to get evenly spaced circles but just got sharp dagger like lines coming out of the star, do you think collimation is required and thats why I could not see the cloud?

[John]

The moon was not to far away from Orion this evening and did a fine job of washing out most of the nebula from where I was observing with my 6" refractor.

On a dark night it's a far more impressive sight and the nebula sprawls right across the field of view of a medium power eyepiece. I still don't see any colour, apart from a hint of lime green, with my 10" scope though.

So blame the moon rather than your scope or eyes !.

[Nexus 6]

Hi Type-R, nice car by the way, on my third Honda now.

How are your skies? M42 is pretty easy to see naked eye even with some lp, the nebula itself is a brilliant object to see visually as its pretty big and under the right conditions its possible to make out faint wisps of green, through the ep

I would back off with the power, say 32mm to make sure I had it in the fov and then check my starfinder was aligned correctly, after that I would bump up the power till it was nicely in the fov

[Daz Type-R]

Okay, I did notice that the moon was quite close and very bright, as for my skys, I live 7-10 miles north of Nottingham, Orion at the time I was viewing was south, south west so I could of been getting lp + bad light from the moon.

Like I say, I`m 99.5 % certain I was in the right place.

Oh well, I will just have to go out another night when the moon is not so bright and give it another go.

Cheers guys.

[Moonshane]

don't fret - it's not going anywhere and with an 8" scope and better conditions it will be impressive.

[John]

don't fret - it's not going anywhere and with an 8" scope and better conditions it will be impressive.

Yep - on a dark night it's impressive with a 4" scope

[Daz Type-R]

don't fret - it's not going anywhere and with an 8" scope and better conditions it will be impressive.

LOL -

[gedmac]

hi daz i live just up the road from you(sutton) the moon washed out most of the gas/dust clouds in the nebula just persevere and wait for the moon to wane:)

[Daz Type-R]

hi daz i live just up the road from you(sutton) the moon washed out most of the gas/dust clouds in the nebula just persevere and wait for the moon to wane:)

Hi, thanks for that, makes me feel a lot better - will wait for the pesky moon to [removed word] off then give it another shot.

Cheers for all your replys guys.....

[Skybrowser]

The moon will be around there for a while yet, but once it's cleared off, you should find M42 gives much better views. Although it's fairly bright anyway, make sure your eyes are dark adapted. Stay outside in the dark for a while, hot drink, set things up, take a bit of time and your eyes will see a bit more of M42. Avert your eyes slightly away from the centre of the view as your eyes are are more sensitive to light if you look at something a bit "off centre". Takes a while to get this, but once you learn it, you'll see a difference.

Enjoy mate - once the moon gets out of the way.

[alowen]

In the mean time (weather permitting) slap a n96 filter on and enjoy our amazing satellite itself.

Al

[Jimmy Stix]

Yeah! Don't be so mean to our lovely moon.

[Daz Type-R]

Sorry sorry sorry if I have offended any moon lovers out there - lol

I must admit that I gave up on M42 and turned my attention to the moon, I still can not beleive how much detail you get - all though I promptly shot all hope of seeing anything else for half an hour cause I have no moon filter - to say it was a bit bright was an understatement!!!!

[alowen]

Yeah, the filter does help a lot.

Al

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Will have to look that nebula area sometime i was looking yesterday looked wrong place

Thanks to your diagram lurker will look that area when i next star gaze.