2nd time ever, think i saw nebula?

[Sardukar (Tim)]

So second time ever observing with my 8inch dob, and ive been trying to find the lagoon or trifid nebula (and finding out this is a seriously difficult hobby lol). Anyway i eventually found a really faint...greyish smudge. Had to look to the side of the eyepiece because looking directly at it made it pretty much impossible to see.

So does this sound about right for what i think i saw? crappy weather tonight aswell, clouds and lots of wind so im guessing it'll look even better on a calm night (oh and alot of lights on around my place).

[TinyBlueDot (John)]

Hi Tim

Sounds pretty right to me. Like you, I'm in a light-polluted area (Melbourne), and have a small 4.5 inch reflector, and even with this tiddler can make out various nebulae. Yep, they are a grey color and very dim + low contrast - nothing like the photos are they , but that's the limitations of our eyesight.....

There's 3 or 4 nebbies I can see in the Sagittarius/Scorpius area - and being almost overhead at present negates a bit of the light pollution; if you're up pretty late, take a look at Orion- that's got some detail, and seems to me to have a slight greenish color. Then there are the stars embedded within it - you can see how good your eyes/scope is by comparing what you can see to a star chart like stellarium.

Clouded over here for now, and probably so for 3 nights more.....

cheers John

[Sardukar (Tim)]

Heh no they aren't like photos, but still pretty damn cool to actually see one. Also i definitely want to take a look at orion, its something i might be able to actually spot on purpose

Also just pointed my scope at jupiter, holy crap! did not expect that much detail! could see all the bands/colours and could see 4 moons

[ZeroID (Brent)]

One of the most visible is the Orion Nebula, (M42, NGC 1976) the centre few stars of his 'sword'. You'll have to to get up early am though as he is better placed late Autumn, Winter. I can easily see this in my little 80mm Refractor and the 114 Newt so an 8" will really pull it in. ( My 10" will give some colour ).
The other is Eta Carinae (NGC 3372) which is quite large and should show dust lanes dependent on yor LP level. That whole area is full of Open Globs, and other interesting stuff.

Lagoon (M8, NGC6423) and Trifid (M20, NGC 6514) should show some nebulosity if you are patient with your dark adaptation and get a reasonably clear night.

These are probably the most easily seen Nebs down this way.

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Oooohhhh, don't forget NGC 2070 "Tarantula" the pick of the many stunning Large Magellanic Cloud nebula! Get up in the wee hours for this at the moment or wait a few months and it will be in plum position for earlier evening obs.

I have to say I've never really observed in light polluted skies, so can't really imagine what you can/can't see. M8 and M 20 are pretty bright, but greyish as they all are. I would have thought you'd see them OK with direct vision, but always better with averted. M17 (Swan or omega) and M16 (eagle) are also in that neck of the woods and a bit fainter. M17 is a stunner and well worth chasing up. If you've got bad light pollution, a lot of these will benefit greatly from a UHC filter.