It`s Gone..

[toetoe]

The other night i was so happy when i found the galaxy NGC 2640 near the false cross with my little 4.5 tasco. Last night do you think i could find it, NO, i think because i was so happy to see my first ever galaxy and telling my kids and wife to come and have a look (every five minutes) and spending some quality by myself time in the back yard, maybe my wife made it go away. I find it frustrating when, now you see it, now you don`t falls into my back yard. Being new to this game i guess this will not be the first, are there galaxy`s out there suitable for viewing with my 4.5 tasco or would that be out of the question with what i have???.:confused:
Peter.

[gaa_ian]

You should not find the Sombrero galaxy (M104) to hard to find & see, on the border between Virgo & Corvus.

[MiG]

M31 Andromeda galaxy would be visible since it's a naked eye object under dark skies. The problem is that I don't think it's visible at the present time.

[rmcpb]

The Sombrero Galaxy would be an early morning object, probably about 2-3am DST to get the best views.

Cheers

[ballaratdragons]

Andromeda is only visible for a short time each year and low in the sky.

But BOY! is it worth seeing.

You have to be in a location that has access to the low north sky.

It is usually visible in our Mid-Summer so it might be gone by now, I haven't checked any charts. I must do that!

You will find that galaxies will be a bit easier to see in smaller scopes for the next few nights while the Moon is dead.

[ving]

yeah its gone :(

try centaurus a to the left of omega centauri. its pretty bright and the dust lane is an easy find :)

[rumples riot]

Actually Ken I observed M31 during Winter last year at about 1:00am. Near my block over at Yorks.

[gaa_ian]

We are fortunate here to have Andromeda (M31) riding high in the evening sky from Sept through to Jan each year.
The view through a wide field eyepiece or big binoculars is awesome !

[ballaratdragons]

Winter! Wow. That's excellent Paul.

Oh to be more north. We only get it for about 6-8 weeks here.

Don't know if Andromeda would be visible at all from Hobart. Tom?

[gaa_ian]

More north ? no problems..
When we organise the Iceinspace Arnhem land starparty ...
"If you Never never go ...you will never never know :D
I will be trying for M81/82 this year (low to the north but should be visable) :astron:

[ving]

lets all migrate north for winter to ians place :P

[gaa_ian]

Come on up .. heaps of work here
Clear dark skies, great fishing, deserted beaches.
I get no commission what so ever.:P

[iceman]

You need to bring some more NT members to the forums Ian! :P

[beren]

NGC2640 would be a tough object to bag at mag12 and a surface brightness of mag13 and at the very edge of the 4.5 capablity so the seeing must of been very favourable on that night.

Heres some others that may be easier

NGC5128
NGC4945
M83
M104
M65
M66
NGC3628

[toetoe]

Thanks beren, that should keep me going for a while, i just have to work out where they all are as i am still trying to understand the star or sky charts.
Thanks to all the other info from everyone else also...

[beren]

If you have a pair of 7x50/10x50 binoculars and use them to aid in starhopping while using a map you should find that helps a lot . Another good thing to do is work out your FOV of all your eyepieces {and binos} in degress/arc min/arc sec and use templates on your maps , most planterium software have this function , Cartes Du Ceil is one and its free to download and the one i use to print up maps etc.

[toetoe]

Have not got binocs as yet,
do you have a web address for the software Cartes Du Ceil.?

[gaa_ian]

Here you go Peter
It is a great program, but does have a few quirks, especially when loading updates.

http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/download.html (http://)

[toetoe]

Thanks gaa_ian,
i will give it a looksy and see how the quirks behave.