M51, M56, M57, and the Amazing Albireo!
Wow,
Although M51 is called the 'Whirlpool Galaxy' is not much to look at in light polluted skies, I have spent the last 6 or so clear nights trying to locate it. I also have found that an Optical finder is fairly necessary for these 'faint fuzzies' because in my light polluted skies I could not even see 24CVn to hop from, here is what I had to resort to, in order to succeed:
-First after reading my Star Watch and Turn Left at Orion books (i feel the compliment each other great!), I know exactly where to look, but could not see the square of stars which suround it with my 32mm, as the magnification is to high, and I only have about a 1 degree FOV.
-So out came the binos, and was able to see the stars perfectly, so, I switched on my trusty Green Laser Pointer mounted on my scope that I use for a finder, and moved the scope, until the green laser was pointing right at the spot where it should be, and BAM! I caught it!
HAHA I must have looked silly, bino's in one hand, and trying to direct and point my 10" with the other hand! But I must say this worked well!
M51 appeared as a 2 faint fuzzy patches of light, nothing spectacular, but I loved the hunt, and thats what counts!
Also I found another DSO without even looking or one! I was looking for the Ring Nebula (one of my favorites) and i had the stars mixed up where it was instead of looking in between Sheliak and Sulafat, I was looking between Sulafat and Albireo, and found M56! I was like "Hey thats no ring!", so I whipped open my books and found it was M56. Also Albireo is an amazing double! the blue and yellow really stand out!
Although M51 is called the 'Whirlpool Galaxy' is not much to look at in light polluted skies, I have spent the last 6 or so clear nights trying to locate it. I also have found that an Optical finder is fairly necessary for these 'faint fuzzies' because in my light polluted skies I could not even see 24CVn to hop from, here is what I had to resort to, in order to succeed:
-First after reading my Star Watch and Turn Left at Orion books (i feel the compliment each other great!), I know exactly where to look, but could not see the square of stars which suround it with my 32mm, as the magnification is to high, and I only have about a 1 degree FOV.
-So out came the binos, and was able to see the stars perfectly, so, I switched on my trusty Green Laser Pointer mounted on my scope that I use for a finder, and moved the scope, until the green laser was pointing right at the spot where it should be, and BAM! I caught it!
HAHA I must have looked silly, bino's in one hand, and trying to direct and point my 10" with the other hand! But I must say this worked well!
M51 appeared as a 2 faint fuzzy patches of light, nothing spectacular, but I loved the hunt, and thats what counts!
Also I found another DSO without even looking or one! I was looking for the Ring Nebula (one of my favorites) and i had the stars mixed up where it was instead of looking in between Sheliak and Sulafat, I was looking between Sulafat and Albireo, and found M56! I was like "Hey thats no ring!", so I whipped open my books and found it was M56. Also Albireo is an amazing double! the blue and yellow really stand out!
posted by MattOnTheMoon | 6/22/2005
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