can someone please offer a short list of the easiest galaxies to find..? i suppose its a balance between magnitude and just how easy it is to star hop to.
we have seen a couple of nebulae (carina, m42) and i have a few more to find (e.g. tarantula).
am yet to see a galaxy though!
looking at a few late nights later in the week when the moon is behaving itself.
Like Coen says, M65 and M66 in Leo are great.
Eric, I like NGC 4945 too.
Also try M59 and M60 in Virgo.
But wait for a dark moonless night.
Good hunting, Rob.
The Sombrero is usually a breeze to find, and is a nice sight in my 12". Infact, around that area of the Sky, Leo and Virgo etc. there are some bright candidates
These two are my favourites for picking up some "galaxy time" namely the Leo Triplet and the Sombrero.
For the Leo Triplet, you find Saturn and look down to the star at the "tail" of the lion, from there, if you move "up and to the right" halfway from the start star to the other brightish naked eye star with your dob, you should see a dark area devoid of any bright stars (as indicated on the attached pic), with a 20mm or 15mm eyepiece, you should be able to see the THREE galaxies of M65, M66 and NGC 3628 in the same field of view, VERY cool.
My other favourite is quite easy to find quickly, the M104 Sombrero galaxy.
Find Corvus (the crow) and you should see SPICA, the bright 0.95 magnitude star in Virgo below it towards the East. If you split the distance between the two and then go "about 45 degrees from each point to the LEFT, you should see some fairly distinctive stars as shown in the second attached pic, namely one group of triple stars side by side. The Sombrero is in the middle of this group.
Obviously skyglow and moonlight affect what you see, but I can generally pick these out in the suburbs up to about 75% moonlight in the 12".
Make sure you use the Finderscope to HOME in on the areas, which is what I do, because I can recognise the patterns as to what I am looking for.
Give it a go when the moon wanes some more and see how you go.
Since I am new to this these might not be galaxies, if not sorry about that
NGC 4755--- Just below the Southern Cross. The Jewel Box ( beautiful colours esp the reds
M 42 --- South of the 3 stars that make up Orion's belt-- Diffuse Nebula in Orion
M 41--- In the Dog constellation. Slightly to the left of Sirius--Galactic Cluster in Canis Major.
The Milky Way is the largest and nearest galaxy you can see.
Galaxy comes from "Gala" the Greek word for milk.
(the Milky Way in Greek mythology was said to be milk sprayed from Hera's breast.)
The Milky Way is the largest and nearest galaxy you can see.
Galaxy comes from "Gala" the Greek word for milk.
(the Milky Way in Greek mythology was said to be milk sprayed from Hera's breast.)
Wise words there from George....i googled it to make sure it was true (i love google).
I cant really help much here but i like M31 (Andromeda galaxy).... but its a bit far north.
I would recommend you get stellarium. It gives lots of information on galaxies and just the sky in general. Check out the website below. http://www.stellarium.org/
These 16 galaxies are the brightest south of declination +45.
Milky Way, LMC, SMC, M31-32-110, M33*, NGC5128, NGC253
M83, NGC55, M104, NGC300*, M94, NGC6744* and M49.
* have low surface brightness.
Hi Mark3d, I tend to agree with the latter comments, surburban/city lights really washes things out, and combine that with full moon just right now, well you can forget it altogether - you'll just be looking at sky glow. But if you can get to dark skies away from the city, you will find that the increase in contrast will blow you away. At my site down the coastline, even my four-inch Genesis gives nice views of the brighter galaxies when they rise high. Fox.
Note the 5 galaxies listed on the flips side.
Of these, the LMC and SMC are really naked eye (or binoc) viewable targets from a moderately dark sky site (eg. 50km from suburbia).
As noted below, the real candidates from suburbia are:
NCG 5128 (Centaurs-A, 18'x14', magnitude 6.6 when high in the sky)
M83 (Souther Pinwheel Galaxy, 7', magnitude 7.6 when high in the sky)
M104 (Sombrero Galaxy, 7'x4', magnitude 8.0 when high in the sky)
Remember to use low magnification when trying to view (makes images in the eyepiece smaller but brighter).
I've also attached some small snaps form the Melbourne suburbs. Although visual obs in a 10" Dob will be smaller and fainter, this will give you an idea of the basic shapes.
The Milky Way is the largest and nearest galaxy you can see. 
