First Galaxy

[Riley86]

It may seem a bit stupid but just wanted to express my joy of seeing my first faint fuzzie. The beautiful sombrero galaxy all this with just my star map and observing 5 min from Sydney CBD. Cant wait to get out to a dark sky site and see a lot more faint fuzzies :)

[Gem]

Well done! Try Centaurus A (aka NGC 5128) next! :)

[astroron]

Well done mate, your observing journey has just began:thumbsup:
Cheers

[erick]

Yea! :thumbsup: Isn't that great! The first of many more :)

[Ric]

Nothing silly about that Adam

Seeing a galaxy for the first time is amazing, I think it really puts the Universe into perspective to see these islands just floating out there.

[Riley86]

Ive tried in vain to spot centauraus A, it is so near Omega Centuri yet i somehow cannot spot it. maybe its the sky is not dark enough? Also is there any good guides out there for spotting galaxies because i noticed the Sombrero galaxy is near a group of 3 distinct stars (thats how i found it).
Just wondering if you guys can give me any tips on finding Centaraus A and some other easy galaxies like the southern pinwheel maybe?

[erick]

Try this thread, Adam:-

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=58377

It includes my star-hopping path to the Sombrero. :)

[Riley86]

Thanks Eric, great thread :). Happy hunting, wish me luck!

[erick]

Good luck! But planning, researching, methodical searching and star-hopping with good use of binoculars, finderscope and telescope is what you really need :)

[Paddy]

M104 is truly a gem of a galaxy - one of my favourites - well done on tracking it down Adam. The way I find Centaurus A/NGC 5128 is to consider it to be one corner of a dodgy sort of rhomboid with the others being Omega Centauri, Zeta Centauri and Mu Centauri. This is usually enough to get it into the FOV of the finderscope.

Good luck!

[Riley86]

Yeah good advice on tracking down Centaurus A although im worried the sky isnt dark enough where iam because i hear its notoriously hard to spot in surburban skies, the sombrero wasnt too hard because of its high surface brightness. oh well all i can do is try :). Any other relatively easy ones to track down from Sydney skies. I hear M83 (southern pinwheel) is another good target, any other suggestions?

[erick]

Try M65 and M66 in Leo? I have spotted them in an 8" scope from suburban Melbourne.

[Riley86]

The Leo Triplet, i might give it a go however north always looks a bit faint proberly due to the sky glow of manly lol

[erick]

You won't likely see the third galaxy NGC3628 from suburbia, unfortunately.

[barx1963]

Hay Adam well done. I can remember my first Galaxy (NGC 253 in Sculptor) and I came inside and said to the wife that I had just been looking at light 11 million years old. M 104 is one of my favorites and I get impatient each year waiting for it so I can renew our acquintance.

Hope you get to see many more

Malcolm

[Riley86]

I know the feeling i was just like oh my god it looks like the picture (sort of), knowing i was seeing something so Old and so far away truly was special just like the time i stumbled upon orion nebula and didnt even know what it was at the time and was like OH MY GOD, cant beat the feeling!

It was particulary good because ive been hunting this sucker for the past few weeks!

:)