What's visible (and impressive) with a 10" Dob and both a 10mm and 25mm eyepiece?

[IC1101]

So far I've seen Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, both the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, Tucanae 47 (NGC 104), the flame nebula and obviously the moon in various states.

I'm really hoping to build up a good folio of objects so that I can give my family and friends a good show!

So far I think I've been most impressed by the flame nebula and NGC 104. Both were visually awe inspiring!

You'll have to speak in laymans terms as I'm a complete novice at all of this.

I live in North Western Victoria if that helps at all.

Thank you in advance!

[BeanerSA (Paul)]

NGC104 is one of my faves too!

You haven't seen M42 (Orion Nebula) yet?

[geolindon (Lindon)]

because most non astronomers are familiar with the pointers n southern cross i find they are impressed with more info and the views of this area. pls check wikipedia n verify my memory b4 compounding any errors in my off the top of the head list below;

the jewel box - its pretty n different coloured stars indicating different temperatures.

split alpha centauri - it is 3 stars u can see 2 proxima is a cool dwarf n too dull, its the closest to us, n the system might have at least one planet.
split other cross stars - the one nearest the pointers (i think its that one) has a beaut little ruby wide separation partner.

the coal sack - a big dusty dark area nebula, not visually attractive but good info.

omega centauri - WOW the biggest cluster, is it the remnants of a devoured galaxy? 100s of millions of stars, ?black hole.

centauri A - a 'faint fuzzy' but relatively bright galaxy with a predominant dust lane.

southern pin wheel galaxy - further from the cross, a face on faint fuzzy spiral.

eta carina nebula - my favourite big n bright and in a busy area of the milky way.

n i've probably forgotten some, its a loaded part of the sky. btw when at the LMC remember sn1987a - super novae are fascinating we are made of star dust!
enjoy, L

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

So far I think I've been most impressed by the flame nebula and NGC 104.

Are you sure you have seen the flame nebula NGC 2024 and not the great Orion nebula NGC 1976? The former is much more difficult than the latter, though probably detectable with a 10" from your country skies.
I think you may have them confused.

[IC1101]

Originally Posted by geolindon

because most non astronomers are familiar with the pointers n southern cross i find they are impressed with more info and the views of this area. pls check wikipedia n verify my memory b4 compounding any errors in my off the top of the head list below;

the jewel box - its pretty n different coloured stars indicating different temperatures.

split alpha centauri - it is 3 stars u can see 2 proxima is a cool dwarf n too dull, its the closest to us, n the system might have at least one planet.
split other cross stars - the one nearest the pointers (i think its that one) has a beaut little ruby wide separation partner.

the coal sack - a big dusty dark area nebula, not visually attractive but good info.

omega centauri - WOW the biggest cluster, is it the remnants of a devoured galaxy? 100s of millions of stars, ?black hole.

centauri A - a 'faint fuzzy' but relatively bright galaxy with a predominant dust lane.

southern pin wheel galaxy - further from the cross, a face on faint fuzzy spiral.

eta carina nebula - my favourite big n bright and in a busy area of the milky way.

n i've probably forgotten some, its a loaded part of the sky. btw when at the LMC remember sn1987a - super novae are fascinating we are made of star dust!
enjoy, L

Fantastic post! I'll be sure to check these out over the weekend.

Originally Posted by The Mekon

Are you sure you have seen the flame nebula NGC 2024 and not the great Orion nebula NGC 1976? The former is much more difficult than the latter, though probably detectable with a 10" from your country skies.
I think you may have them confused.

Yeah you're definitely right there. Did a bit of googling to differentiate the two and I'm definitely looking at the Orion Nebula.

[MattT]

Go cruising with the 25mm eyepiece. Take a closer look at what's interersting with the 10mm and try and find out later what it is. That's how I still do it.
Mind like a sieve when it comes to numbers...wouldn't know my NGC xxx from a M xx if you can follow! My favourite time of year for observing is just around the corner too....Autumn love it! So much good stuff will be directly overhead.
Matt

[Vegeta (Ibrahim)]

Try the tarantula nebula in the LMC, it normally gives a pretty good show

[Doogs38 (Alex)]

Originally Posted by Vegeta

Try the tarantula nebula in the LMC, it normally gives a pretty good show

Yes! I can look at this gem for ages. It's so big and intricate, and a 10" dob should pick out a lot of detail. It's even better with a UHC filter if viewing from the burbs as is the Eta Carina nebula. Further, if I can see the Homunculus (in the Eta Carina nebula) with my 14" dob, then I'm guessing it's also visible with a 10" dob.

[Suzy]

From my light polluted backyard, through my 10" dob, I've seen oodles of deep sky objects including a feast of galaxies - no problem. I just stick to objects under magnitude 10.

Depending on the seeing conditions, the views will either be jaw dropping or ho hum. So it's always worth paying repeated visits to galaxies.

All the best with your new telescope, wow, you have so many nights of enjoyment just waiting to be had. Let the fun begin!

[cspruit]

Like geolindon said, you can impress people with information about what they are looking at. Like how far away, what it is, how it might be clouds lit up by stars, or how its young stars, etc. Eg the Crab nebula (if you can find it) - it's a star that blew up and you're seeing it as it slowly flies out everywhere. Then go onto how big the universe is, how many stars there are in a galaxy, all that good stuff. People always end up just staring up in a 'wow-ed' state, asking more questions. It's somewhere people dont go very often!

Ends up a discussion about how minute and unimportant this planet is. Then you bust out "On a mote of dust" by Carl Sagan

The above is like therapy.

[Suzy]

Originally Posted by cspruit

Like geolindon said, you can impress people with information about what they are looking at. Like how far away, what it is, how it might be clouds lit up by stars, or how its young stars, etc. Eg the Crab nebula (if you can find it) - it's a star that blew up and you're seeing it as it slowly flies out everywhere. Then go onto how big the universe is, how many stars there are in a galaxy, all that good stuff. People always end up just staring up in a 'wow-ed' state, asking more questions. It's somewhere people dont go very often!

Ends up a discussion about how minute and unimportant this planet is. Then you bust out "On a mote of dust" by Carl Sagan

The above is like therapy.

I couldn't agree more .

And I've noticed kids really love that too- especially the stars blowing up bit. Show them Betelgeuse for a star about to go supernova and then as a comparison to how our star will end, show them a red giant star (like how our star will end up) then showing them a planetary nebula of how our star will ending up looking like (well sort of- there's so many different shapes of those things & some with or without colour).

[tonybarry (Tony)]

Hi IC1101,

I'd add in M104, the Sombrero galaxy. Visible through the eyepiece due to high surface brightness, even in moderate light pollution.

M83 (the Southern Pinwheel galaxy) - would be very hard to see anything except the core unless in dark skies - don't bother with it unless you have an accumulating videocamera (e.g. GStar EX, Watec 120N etc)

You might wish to download Rob Horvat's excellent Night Sky Objects v3 - the thing about Rob's work is that everything that he recommends he has looked at with a 12" Lightbridge, and it can be seen (rather than visible only to long exposures with CCDs).

http://sites.google.com/site/southernastronomer

Regards,
Tony Barry