horsehead

[Harpspitfire]

hi, anybody ever see this thing? i really need advice -- i thought i had a good chance tonight, but failed again- i go from sun bright alnitak about 1/3 of the way down to that hinky-dink star- thats where it is right??- now i can see smoke on 1 side and complete black on the other-- so wheres the horse?- in the black or smoke part?- BTW- all i got is a celestron LP filter- thats a cross between a skyglow and ultra block- so am i just wasting my time on this thing??- i know you need the h beta filter- but if i can see the smoke and black- i should be able to see the horse right??- this is driving my batty- :doh: , john

[matt]

What aperture you working with?

Think you need a fair amount of mirror and very dark skies, along with that h beta filter

[Striker]

This shows the position pretty well.

[Harpspitfire]

ok, im in the right spot- so that red Ha part in the photo is the 'smoke' i see?- ill say it runs north/south for lack of better wording- so the 'horse' should be a dark insert into the smoke part right?- BTW- i was using a 12" dob- i dont how to measure 'mag' nights- i dont get them very often- but tonight was as dark as most of the better nights -which are few, i set up in back to block off the street lights and turned off all the house lights

[stephenmcnelley]

Like trying to find Pluto Harpspfire, well not quite that rigourous, but it takes dark skies and persistence and..... nice eyepieces.
Please let us all know how you get on with ID'ing it.

[Harpspitfire]

most likely it will end up-------averted imagination- LOL

[glenc]

You will have to get well away from the streetlights. Use a fairly high power because the hh is only small and you don't want any bright stars in the field. Even then you will only see a dark bay in a faint glow, no shape. I saw the shape once with a 25" but a 12" isn't big enough to show it. A UHC filter helps a bit.