I cant find ANYTHING

[Ingo]

Tonight I am very frustrated. I have been outside at least 2 hours looking at stellarium, and the sky...trying to find M31 Andromeda...I've searched the entire area and I still CANNOT find anything!

I wish I had somebody here who could help me with pointing things out :(

[[1ponders]]

In Albany NY atm it is about 50.5 degrees above the horizon almost exactly North east

[tnbk00]

What kind of finderscope do you have? or is this naked eye viewing? what other instruments do you have ie compass etc?

[Ingo]

I am just working with my eye and a compass right now. I'm guessing it might be because my telescope is F11.7?

[Jupiter]

Take the dust cover off.

[tnbk00]

So you know which direction to look...to determine degrees have a read of this guide.....gives you an idea on how to determine how many degrees your hand is etc:
http://stargazing.suite101.com/article.cfm/determining_degrees_in_observing


There are probably better links around......i just cant find any at the moment

[Tannehill]

M31 is bright, but big and diffuse. Not best target in full moon, by the way, even tho you will see it thru any scope now. If you have a f11 scope it might be that you aren't seeing it because it's bigger than you are expecting. M31 is technically 6 times wider than the moon, but in an urban setting it won't look that big...but easily 3 times the moon's size on night like this.

M31 is best in a richfield scope or big binocs.

Albany isn't the darkest site, either, or are you out in the sticks enough to escape skyglow?

Scott

[Tannehill]

what's the actual FOV of your lowest mag EP?

If you can find Cass (the big W) and Square of Peg, see attached diagram below. It's halfway between Schedar and Alpheratz, then drop a perpendicular down a bit and you will see it....I'd use binocs to start if you can.



st

[Ingo]

I'm by an airport but the more I look up, the darker it gets, along the edges of the horizon it's blue, but looking straight up is decently dark. I'm a good 5 miles from the actual bright city, but I think that's still enough to get some light pollution. There are also very bright street lights which I might be able to shut off with my lasers and see if that helps, but I'm guessing that's illegal.

I looked at Stellarium and Andromeda looked no way bigger than the moon at the time, but I guess you can't judge that by a program. I looked and looked for it all night last night with my 25mm eyepiece.

I got some diffuse stuff around a star last night with my 24-70 F2.8 at around 50mm, but I couldn't find it with my 70-300.

I will try again tonight and hope the full moon goes down before 3AM. I can see some of M42 at 4.0 Magnitude, so I should be able to see Andromeda Better at 3.4 Magnitude.

[Shawn]

You wont see M31 with a full moon and light pollution, Its angular size is way greater than the moons as is pionted out here, In a dark sky like here its a neked eye jobby easily. at F11 as you piont out only a bit of it would be in the FOV. anyways, grab a pair of good binos and youll probably see it ...All will be revealed...;)

[KG8]

Fullmoon and galaxy, bad combination for sure. I wouldn't bother with anything but the moon itself at the monent, unless there is a nice little open cluster around your neck of the woods.

[jjjnettie]

Yep, binoculars are the go for something as big as M31.
They fill the field of view in my pair of 10x50's.
Good hunting Ingo.

[ballaratdragons]

Geez, f11.7! It takes up the whole field in my f5.

I agree with the others about the light pollution and full moon.

Also, when you do get rid of the full moon, make sure your focus is spot on by focusing on nearby stars. DSO's fade away if you are even a small bit out of focus.

[Ingo]

Yeah. I've found the Andromeda constellation, and found the star M31 is above...but I can't find M31. I'm gonna have to buy a new scope or just get the EQ-Min to track it for minute exposures and just stack.

[OneOfOne]

I think the size of the Moon is severely exagerated in these programs to make the Moon easier to see on the screen, especially if you have a wide view (Starry Night anyway). If you zoom in, you may see the Moon doesn't get as magnified as the star field.

[Ingo]

Ok well the real moon, I have a 25mm eyepiece that the moon is pretty small in. Almost to where I can't see craters. If andromeda is 3x bigger, I should be able to fit most of it in the FOV.

[Ingo]

I still couldn't pull it off. It's PITCH BLACK straight at the constellation and I let my eyes adjust and sit there for at least 10 minutes looking at the constellation. Couldn't see anything. I'm going camping next week in the middle of NOWHERE, so hopefully I'll get some nice widefields of the milky way and try to find andromeda.

[Ingo]

Ok, I believe I found it on my camera! Score!

Take a lookie.

Looks tiny.

Also, that isn't the real amount of noise. The image is very very enhanced.

[Tannehill]

Yep, I reckon it is.

M31 is big and bright but lacks the surface brightness of a star, except the nucleus. The reference to size relative to the moon always throws people, since they expect something as bright as the moon. Many things are larger than the moon: Omega Cent, the Lagoon, Eta Carinae; and even a fair number of galaxies we look at are comparable in size to the full moon (Centaurus A, several in Fornax, etc). Just way dimmer, and this low surface brightness belies their size. Once you've M31 it in binocs in a dark sky, you'll never fail to find it again. It's clearly visible with the naked eye, tho' the bright skies of the U.S. make the naked eye enjoyment a challenge.

Scott

[Bobj]

G'day Ingo, have a squiz at this mudmap, mate.:thumbsup:

[Ingo]

It's funny how I can see HP 4436 underneath M31 at 3.85 but not Andromeda at 3.50. :screwy:

I wish the sky just looked like stellarium and had circles around DSO's and lines along constellations :lol: