Afocal M1

[lunator]

I decided to track down M1 as I haven't observed it for a while.

It can be a bit tricky form my light polluted site.

It took a little finding but after a sweep around I found a light grey smudge on a roughly East/West orientation.

I thought I woold try and capture it afocally as this would give a good representation of what you will see.

The image isn't great as my neighbours security light is very bright due to the lack of fence, but I am happy a capture a close to real life image.

Cheers

Ian

<img src=http://iseestars.net/image/7191/large/image.jpg alt=ISEE STARS Image>

[MartinB]

Well that is amazing Ian. I can see it there but people who haven't seen M1 through the EP and don't know just how faint it is might struggle to see it. It's there and this is what it looks like through the scope - unless you have a large dob

[Kain]

I must admit, I can't see it at all, I even made it brighter in PS, still can't see it.

Yet I have seen it really well in the dob lol.

Nice one Ian, It's obviously my eyes or stupidity that isn't letting me see it lol.

Kain

[MartinB]

You'll need to make sure your monitor is well calibrated! It is above and slightly to the right of the M1 text

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Ian, you just reminded my why I do imaging. There's no way that I could see that in the EP and realise that I was looking at M1, and my sky is quite possibly worse.

I'm fairly unsurprised that folks can't get to see this thing now that I know what it looks like.

A very interesting image, and one that you shouldn't be able to do. Afocal fuzzies? Whatever next!

Captain Chaos

[geppetto]

So that's why I have never seen M1 :shock:

That's a dim one Ian

Interesting image mate

[Andrew*]

no wonder!! I had a search qith my 8" yesterday, but found nothing at all. Maybe I was staring right at it, but if it looked like that, I wouldn't have made a second glance. It must be one of those targets that gives you a lovely warm feeling when it's freezing and crystal clear. Fascinating object though.

Thanks Ian.

Andrew

[garymcgrory]

Great image Ian, but have to agree with the consensus- you will probably have had to have seen M1 thru an eyepiece, to see it in the above image but it does give you a good idea how patient you have to be to see these faint dso's.

I will def get into imaging in the future, however there is a real joy in using just your eye, averted vision and a dark sky to hunt out these fuzzy. I remember looking for M101 on about 10 occasions with no success but was over the moon when this vague grey patch revealed itself one dark night- try, try and try again is my motto.

Andrew you should def see this dso with your scope i failed the first few time (was looking at the wrong part of the sky!) but once you find it once it is easily found again and you should get a sense of structure with averted vision.

cheers

Gary

[lunator]

M1 is a tricky one to see.

I also observed the NGC2392 the eskimo nebula last night and it was an absolute breeze to observe in comparison.

I have checked details on the 2 objects

M1 - Size 6x4'(arc minutes), Mag 8.4

My Observation; Pale grey object elongated roughly E/W uniform brightness.

NGC 2393 - Size 40x40"(arc seconds) , Mag 9 (range given as 8.6-10)

My observation; round grey object with bright central core - it does look a bit like Uranus!!

My view is that M1 suffers the same problem as M33, it's light is spread over a wider area.

M1= 7200" arc seconds

2393 = 1600" arc seconds

so while the brightness of the object is roughly the same it is spread over 4.5 times the area.

Cheers

ian

[lunator]

This is another pic I took shortly afterwards.

I hope it shows the "grey smudge" slightly more.

I have cropped the image down.

Cheers

Ian

<img src=http://iseestars.net/image/7202/large/image.jpg alt=ISEE STARS Image>

[SteelRat]

Saw M1 for the first time ever in my Tal1 a while back. It really is a tiny little grey smudge ain't it? Hopefully will see it in something bigger next year.

Nice post Ian 8)