[Rob_K]

Good advice Glen, thanks! I view through a small aperture scope so need all the help I can get – filters are no real help because they kill too much of what little light I get. For the really LSB objects that have to be teased out from the background, I suppose that first requirement is a good dark night with excellent transparency, followed by detailed charts that absolutely nail the position of the object in the FOV. If it’s a big object, work out the position of the brightest bit/s that you are most likely to see. Ensure that you set up so that no extraneous light will interfere with your viewing (eg a distant streetlight that hits your retina every time you take your eye away from the eyepiece). Then a long period of light adaptation. Always do a tour of brighter objects first, working to dimmer. Only when your eyes are working really well do you go to the field.

If you don’t see anything first up, identify the position, and tease out fainter & fainter stars in the field using averted vision. Movement is important – move the scope backwards and forwards to see if anything ‘jumps out’ at the position, however faintly. Use averted vision in the 2 o’clock position. Staring helps but your eyes can invent things too! If you think you’ve got it in vision, move the scope – if it disappears you haven’t! Once you have it, work on it, using averted vision – can you get more of its extent? Is it oval, roundish or indeterminate in shape? Is there a hint of central brightening? Going away from the field for a while and coming back helps too. This refreshes your eyes and gets rid of IFOs (Imaginary Faint Objects!).

There are all sorts of advanced techniques that I’ve never bothered to try – blanket over the head to kill extraneous light, even something called "double-averted-vision", LOL…

And when all else fails, buy a bigger scope!

Cheers -