Finally a clear night and I saw my first Galaxy!

[ManOnTheMoon (Matt)]

The clouds cleared off about 7pm last night so I took the dob outside about 10pm to have a good crack at finding the Centaurus A galaxy! Im pretty sure I found it. I moved the scope abit further out from where Omega Centauri is located and I found an oval shaped fuzzy patch with a bright star above it located at about 10 oclock. I was using my x2 barlow and 15mm ep. I couldnt see any spiral arms but it was bright in the center. Had a look for the nearby NGC 4945 sideon galaxy but coundnt find that. I then pointed my 8" dob straigt up towards the Corvus constellation and I think I was looking at the Antennae colliding galaxy system but it may have been the NCG 4361 nebula im not sure as it was bloody hard try to look through the finder when it was pointing almost vertical lol.

[Suzy]

Good on you!
I've had so many goes at trying to find Centauraus A! And lost! The Sombrero galaxy hangs around Corvus, wonder if it was that.

[Liz]

Well done MAtt!! All a big learning curve, and you will keep finding treasures in the night sky from now on.
Probably was Centaurus A if it was in the right area. The dark band through the centre in quite clear, so when you find it again, see if you can spot the band - 'The Hamburger Galaxy' is another name for it.

[mjeremy (Mike)]

I had a look at M104 Sombrero last night in less than brilliant conditions - lots of Ocean spray blowing up from the beach. Funny thing was I went looking for it star hopping via the 10 inch dob and couldn't nail it - eventually got the ****s and pulled out the SE8 and aligned it - hit it first time - couldn't see much more than a central brightness and the obscuring dust lane - It is transiting at about 10:15 in sydney at the moment so it's well worth a look given we are at new moon. I think I've seen a number of discussion threads on here describing a start hop out to M104. It's well worth a visit if your looking for a DSO to have a look at at this time of year

[PeterM]

Congratulations Matt,
I did something similar many (many) years ago and it just got me deeper and deeper into this wonderful hobby. It's like seeing Saturn for the first time, you just never forget.
Happy hunting!
PeterM.

[ManOnTheMoon (Matt)]

I found the Sombrero Galaxy last night! Looking backup around corvus I found the 2 stars then the triange so I knew I was onto it. Then the little 3 star triange followed by the line of stars that point to Sombrero. With a 2x barlow and 15mm ep it didnt look like much at first very dull and faint ( the sky here isnt real dark ) but after 5 mins it started to standout some more. I need to take my dob out to me folks at beerwah one night as the sky's so much darker out that way.

[binofied]

I remember my first deep sky object was M1 the crab nebula, it was at a dark site in a 4" dob! I don't recommend this object visually BTW as it is stupidly faint. I thought man that's amazing, but I hope not everything is as hard to find and faint as this one!

Centaurus A is a nice galaxy. It's fairly large so perhaps the 15 and a barlow is a bit much. You should be able to see it as a fuzzy ball shape with a distinct dark lane in the middle. Of course how clear this lane is depends on your observing site as just a bit of light pollution or a streetlamp that you can see is enough to take the contrast right away.

The Sombraro again is a fantastic galaxy. You will be able to make out that it has a brighter core, it is long and thin and you may well be able to see the faint line seperating the top and bottom halves.

Don't forget to try using averted vision as this will make it look much brighter. Just look off to the side and a bit above it should appear much brighter when you get it right, look directly at it and it will dim again.