Galaxies and dark sites?

[Manok101]

I was wondering if in dark skies galaxies appear to be more than fuzzy things?

[rowan46]

not really, the contrast is better so they're easier to see, but if you want detail you need a big scope

[mikeknowle]

Nope, still fuzzy blobs - but you can see them without straining to find them.

[John]

Most are still faint and fuzzy but slightly less so. At the SGL4 star party I was able to see the spiral structure of M51 clearly with a 12" scope. From my back garden, with moderate light pollution, thats not possible.

At SGL5 last year my 6" refractor was showing galaxies more or less as they appear with my 10" newtonian from my garden.

So it does make a difference but you still need a large aperture scope to see structure, even from a dark sky site.

[mikeknowle]

Sorry...I meant they were still fuzzy blobs with the naked eye...

[cs1cjc]

Very few galaxies are visible with the naked eye. M31 definitely is, but even that is only a blob for me and it is the only galaxy I have seen without a telescope.

Stephen James O'Meara says in his book, The Messier Objects, that M81 and M83 are the most distant objects detectable with the naked eye, twice the distance of M31 and M33. Then, he mostly observes at 8,000 feet in The Kau desert area of Volcano on Hawaii with the nearest town tens of miles away...

[alowen]

Stephen James O'Meara says in his book, The Messier Objects

Im reading the same book at the mo, it seems great.

Al