Quote:
Originally Posted by pgc hunter
Thanks Patrick. To see the real faint stuff I use a black hood on my head which works really well for blocking out local light pollution. Magnification helps, it increases the darkness of the background sky aiding contrast, so I find magnifications of 350-400x to be superior to 250x or so, even in poor seeing, when hunting very small very faint galaxies. This particular galaxy is a compact high surface brightness elliptical so that helps see it. YOu also need to take your time scanning the field, a short glance won't do.
I use the Millenium star atlas and I print off DSS images of the objects I'm looking for which helps pin point the locations of these faint buggers. Knowing the *exact* location is critical and concentrating your gaze there otherwise you won't see nothing.
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Thanks for the tips, Sab. I like the idea of printing some DSS photos, especially with the galaxy groups. I find it very helpful when the Night Sky Observer's Guide has photos of galaxy groups - makes it much easier to find what I'm looking for and to know what's what. But there are a lot that it doesn't have especially amongst the fainter ones. Last night I spent a bit of time with Abells 2870 and 2877, but was not able to really sort them out. The NSOG has some sketches of the group which I need to further play with, But DSS images would definitely help.