Hi, Kev,
Just go to......
http://server1.wikisky.org
and then put the name of a known galaxy that is near to the field of interest, into the search box.
This is a very High Contrast, but not the sharpest available, version of the digitized sky survey (the all-sky Schmidt Surveys) , which has been "stitched together" into a really nifty all-sky Virtual Telescope.
Even better, for some of the northern sky, you can switch over from Schmidt Telescope images to
Sloan Digital Sky Survey images, which are even better quality!
Putting the mouse onto an object will identify it, though for some southern objects it will often give the PGC number for the galaxy rather than the ESO number. (wikisky does not give a lot of cross-identifications between different catalogues)
cheers, Robert
I find that online tools such as this one, together with a really detailed electronic (software) Star Atlas (mag 15 or greater Stellar Magnitude limit)(large Deep Sky Objects database of ~100,000 or more objects) is all I need in order to identify objects seen in a telescope field.
I, personally, use an electronic star atlas called
Guide 8.0, for detailed work on faint galaxies.
Other serious Deep Sky Observers prefer to use tools such as
Megastar5 Sky Atlas and
TheSky X
Added in Edit.....
Hey folks, Guide 9.0 has now been released by www.projectpluto.com
I just realized this!!
For those of you who use other tools, I would say to you that while "Guide" is less user-friendly software, it is distinguished from other serious Deep Sky Observer's star atlases by the extremely large number of deep sky databases it uses and by the remarkably large amount of data about objects that is included in the atlas.
The fields in "Guide" have traditionally looked a bit "rough and ready", but it is very easy to add new databases, most of which are already available for plotting onto the atlas.
"Guide" works very well, and, better still, it is not expensive.
Either the moon is too high, or its smoke haze or clouds or rain - that pretty much describes the vast majority of nights here in Forster over the past few months.
