Search for Messier

[mikemasey]

I have been able to find open and closed clusters, nebulue but cant seem to find a spiral shaped galaxies. Im in cental Australia and have fantastic sky's. I have been looking and looking for M83 as I have a unobstructed view to the west but just cant get it. Are there any realy easy and impresive objects to keep my interest up?
I use an 8 inch Dob which is great.
mike.

[Blackant]

Hi Mike,

I've got an 8" Dob too, and am also enjoying it. I found my first spiral galaxy the other day, NGC 4945 in Centaurus. One of the experienced guys on the forum told me that it is one of the brighter galaxies to see so maybe it might be a good one to try.

I'm way down south in Tassie though, so some of the more experienced people on here will be able to tell you what might be easier up your way.

Have fun :thumbsup:

Kind regards

Ant

[jjjnettie]

M33 is a lovely face on spiral. It's huge too, but rather faint.
M31 is another easy one to find, but unless you have a 30 or 40 mm eyepiece it's best viewed through binos. This thing is ginormous.

[erick]

Mike, do you have binoculars? In your skies, you should be able to see some galaxies and that should help you work out where they are in the sky. Then its over to the finderscope and then your 8" with a long focal length eyepiece (26-30mm).

Targets I would suggest are M83 (as you have mentioned) M31, NGC 253 and NGC 4945. You might want to try for M33.

I find M83 by making a triangle with two bright stars in Hydra. First attached shows M83 location. Second attached, I have blown up the region. From those two bright stars in Hydra, I construct a triangle in my mind, so I go searching from the midpoint between the stars, directly out at 90 deg. You'll find it at the apex of a squashed equilateral triangle. Not bright, but it is there.

Tell us how you go.

Eric :)

[mikemasey]

Thanks all, will try those later tonight.
mike

[goober]

M83 is truly lovely through my 4" refractor. From dark skies it's a jewel, and I've even snagged it from Melbourne (although at 3am when the skies are a lot darker). It's out on it's own a bit, but if you're from "Country", you should be able to star hop there.

[mikemasey]

Nope no sucsess yet but rome wasent built etc..
Loads of stuff around the cross though so I'm not that disapointed.
I will go for M31 next month seen as its a naked eye veiw one?
mike.

[erick]

Stay up late enough and M31 can be all yours this month! :D

[GrahamL]

Do you have a telrad mike ?
http://www.backyard-astro.com/equipment/accessories/telrad/telrad.html
very handy piece of kit that compliments your findersope and makes revisiting the same bit of sky pretty easy, your sky is probably overfull with stars which wouldn't be helping much either .

[astro744]

I highly recommend "The Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide" by Harvard Pennington, published by Willmann Bell. It will introduce you to some very good star hopping techniques as it guides you to each Messier object in a very systematic way.

Included for each Messier object are straight through & right angle finder charts, telrad circles and sketches of each object in a 45min true field in a telescope.

If I had anything negative to say about the book it would be that it was written with the northern hemisphere in mind which makes a difference to the order in which some objects are observed. eg. In the northern hemisphere objects with the most southern declination would be observed first in an evening so as not to miss seeing them before they set. In the southern hemisphere it is the northern most objects you want to look at first. This is particularly important when doing a Messier marathon.

Note the book can be used all year, not just in March when the marathon is normally held. In the northern hemisphere, all 110 Messier objects can be seen in March since this is the period which the Sun is in an area of sky devoid of Messier objects.

[Blackant]

I think I found M 83 on Thursday night, It was very faint though. I'd only let my eyes dark adapt for about 20 minutes, and using averted vision I could see the centre of it as a bright (comparatively speaking) circle leading out to a faint bar and lots of wispy grey cloud surrounding it in a circle. I couldn't make out or recognise anything as spiral arms or anything though. It looked like I was in the right spot on my charts for it but of course it could have just been another grey wispy thing in around about the same spot :lol:

I've got a Telrad arriving this week sometime so hopefully that will help a bit.

Does anyone know if it's possible to see M 31 from south of Hobart? I've got Stellarium (a great free program if you haven't got it Mike) but I have one of those ATI cards that can't run it properly, and I can't use any of the search boxes :sadeyes:

Good luck with your search Mike, it's fun isn't it ;)

Kind regards

Ant

[erick]

It gets up to about 5.5 deg elevation max so, I doubt it - it will be lost in the atmosphere.

I really want to get a scope to Darwin. Can you imagine - M31 35 deg up!

[pgc hunter]

M83 is a goer, never seen it from dark skies but heard reports of spiral arms from those who have, btw M83 is poorly placed at this time of the year, you'll have to wait until late summer/Autumn to see it at its best.

[Blue Skies]

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Its not unknown for beginners to have trouble seeing their first galaxy. I've had one such experience where I put my 8" on NGC 253 (which is in a good position in the evening sky at the moment), which is one of the brightest galaxies in a scope, but some people couldn't see it. After a bit of discussion and me insisting it was long and stretched across the eyepiece, as 253 is edge on, finally it was a disappointed "is that it?" Well, yes. Galaxies are not in your face like star clusters, they are oh-so-subtle. They may be a bit of an acquired taste, like planetary nebs, but lots of fun to find and sometimes stunning. My best memory of M83 is in a 16" with an ultrawide field eyepiece after 4 good solid hours of dark adaption. mmmmmm You can't underestimate the value of good dark adaption.

Keep trying! :thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

Tonight from Sydney M31 peaks at about 15 deg. Hobart at about 5 deg. You might do better from Mt Wellington.

I have the same ATI problem. I'm going to get an NVidia card.

Download "Cartes du Ceil". It works.

[Blackant]

Thanks everyone,

I just realised I got Cartes du ceil on a CD with the "Sky at Night" magazine, I'll have to check it out :thumbsup:

I'll keep on practicing with the galaxies, although it was pretty faint it was still exciting just thinking about what it was I was looking at.

A whole island universe :eyepop:

[mikemasey]

Yes I have steilarium and it works very well.
I have seen what may be m83, it is in the right area. A fussy ball with a bright spot of centre and a dark band top to bottom.
To cludy last night for m31 but maybe tonight(about 22.00 acourding to steilarium)
mike.

[mikemasey]

Nightstalker,
this telrad thingy, is it a sort of overhead projector?
Where to you get the copies,prints of the bit of sky you are looking at from?
And of course are they expencive and worth gettibg one?
mike.

[astro744]

A Telrad is a reflex sight (head up display if you like). It is based on WWII bomb sight technology. Better than a laser I believe. There are many other reflex sights on the market but I prefer the Telrad as do many others.

Do a search for Telrad charts on the web and you'll have plenty of maps.

[astro744]

I think you were looking at Centaurus A (NGC5128) near Omega Centauri and a bit higher than M83. In fact my Stellarium is telling me M83 is well and truly below the horizon by 22:00.

NGC 5128 has the dark band across the middle (edge on dust lane) whilst M83 is a face on spiral galaxy. M83 is way to low to worry about getting a good view unless you try as soon as twilight ends. Try NGC 253 instead up high in the east at 22:00. Very nice and big galaxy to look at.

[mikemasey]

Just seen M31 in my bino's. Dont know what all the fuss is about I found it easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did actualy study my charts before hand but realy it was just luck?
So I of to see about a Telerad gizmo and we will see if it gets any easier.
But I am still so excited!

mike.