Quote:
Originally Posted by ausastronomer
Hi Aidan,
You will certainly be able to observe some of these targets from light polluted skies in an 8" scope. However, keep in mind that whilst you might still be able to see some targets under light polluted skies, the view will be "washed out" and lack contrast compared to the view from darker skies.
You will certainly be able to see some of the bright globular clusters, planetary nebula, open clusters and double stars. Most of the galaxies and some of the planetary nebula because they are dim extended objects and more diffuse, will be difficult to find in an 8" scope under light polluted skies.
If you are unable to jump in the car and drive for 30 to 60 minutes to get to decent skies, you might want to set yourself an observing program that isn't so affected by light pollution. For instance double stars, variable stars, moon, planets etc are not really affected by light pollution, so you may wish to focus more on those types of targets.
If you are interested I could put something together for you from my 600 target list that could be observed under urban skies and will keep you busy for a while 
Cheers,
John B |
Thanks John,
That would be great. My porblem is that having spent a few months ticking of some of the easier objects like Omega Cent, Hyades, Jewel Box etc. I have been struggling to find planetary nebula and higher magnitude galaxies. I was putting this down to my location but nonetheless am looking for a challenge to keep learning. So any help you can give would be great.
Cheers
Aidan
PS I already responded and for some reason it didnt post (user error I expect) so just in case you see two responses.