fishman13
member
Reged: 11/07/05
Posts: 58
Loc: New Jersey
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Can anybody suggest some decent objects to try and find tonight with a 5 inch mak. I have been trying to find most of the Messier objects in Ursa Major and Leo for about the last three weeks, with no luck. The only thing I was able to find was M40. My skies are fairly light poluted  , which is probably why I cannot find any of the galaxies.
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StarMax 127
Meade 70AT
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Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
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Here is a help to chose each month's easy objects:
Amalia's 200
Free maps of our sky:
Free Mag 7 Star Charts
Free software: Cartes du Ciel
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/
Of course adding a book will be helpful.
I hope this will help you!
Amalia, Switzerland
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FirstSight
Postmaster
Reged: 12/26/05
Posts: 7676
Loc: Raleigh, NC
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Even in typical suburban light-polluted just barely past mag-4 skies, galaxies M81 and 82 are still readily findable and visible, at least so long as you don't have a street light directly in line with the region right in front of the bowl of the big dipper.
M81 and M82 are best found by mainly relying on some easily visible triangle geometry from the Big Dipper, rather than mainly by trying to star-hop.
FOR INITIAL ORIENTATION:
Facing north, at about 10pm DST this time of the year, the bowl of the big dipper will appear upside-down, with the bottom of the bowl facing roughly north, the "handle" stretching rougly toward ENE, the "front" of the bowl facing roughly west. As the night grows later, the whole figure will rotate counter-clockwise. NOTE PARTICULARLY TWO OF THE FOUR STARS FORMING THE BOWL OF THE BIG DIPPER:
a) Phad, in the lower back corner of the bowl;
b) Dubhe, in the upper front corner of the bowl.
AND NOTE THE DIAGONAL DISTANCE BETWEEN THEM.
...Now follow that same diagonal, starting from Phad to Dubhe, and equal distance continuing out away from the bowl from Dubhe as was the diagonal distance from Phad to Dubhe. M81 and M82 are just a tiny fraction farther out and "above" that line ("above" meaning northward at 10pm dst) - look within a half-degree radius of that area, and you should find them.
Another hint is to find star Uma23, which is somewhat fainter than the "bowl" stars in the Big Dipper, but is rougly along a straight line along the top of the big dipper's "bowl" (formed by stars Megerz and Dubhe), and rougly an equal distance out as is the distance between Megerz and Dubhe. Note that UMa, Dubhe, and M81/82 form a figure just barely on the acute side shy of a perfect right triangle, with Uma23 in the almost-right-angle corner of the triangle.
No telling which one you'll stumble across first; the larger oval fuzzy is M81, the cigar-shaped streak is M82, and with a Mak, they'll probably just miss being in the same field of view in an eypeiece giving you somewhere between 35-60x - you don't need particularly high magnification for best finding them.
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Chris M., aka "First Sight"
Orion XT12i Dob with Moonlite CR-2 focuser
TeleVue NP-101 refractor
WO Megrez 90 refractor
UniStar Light mount
Edited by FirstSight (04/28/06 08:40 PM)
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novbabies
Postmaster
Reged: 06/05/05
Posts: 15678
Loc: Northern Georgia!
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If you are observing from heavily LP skies, your better bet is to stick with open clusters and brighter globular clusters. Check your Messier list for example to see which of these are accessible at your observing time. Another good website to search for these and other objects by constellation and magnitude is located here.
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Good Seeing!
Mark
Orion 12" XTi f/4.9
VERY old Edmund 6" f/8 reflector
Assorted binoculars
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FirstSight
Postmaster
Reged: 12/26/05
Posts: 7676
Loc: Raleigh, NC
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Quote:
If you are observing from heavily LP skies, your better bet is to stick with open clusters and brighter globular clusters. Check your Messier list for example to see which of these are accessible at your observing time. Another good website to search for these and other objects by constellation and magnitude is located here.
I agree in general that light pollution and finding/observing galaxies don't play well together, with light pollution being the bully that scares all but a small handful of galactic targets out of sight, especially for novices. M31 (Andromeda) and M81/82 are the exceptions that can hold their own against all but the worst and most direct of suburban light pollution (they're visible even at full moon), but M31 isn't up at a feasible hour this time of the year.
I'd agree that globular clusters M3 and M13 would be great targets to go for, since they do stand up against a considerable amount of light pollution (at least away from direct line with a streetlight). M13 is an easy find, provided the stars that make up the "keystone" trapezoid at the center of the Herculeas constellation are visible as guideposts - but it's the constellation stars you need to find it that tend to wash out in light pollution well before M13 itself gets washed out. Kind of a nasty paradox sometimes. M3 OTOH is easier to find by geometric reckoning between two fairly bright stars - it's located roughly midway between Arcturus and Cor Caroli (brightest star in Canes Venatici, down "beneath" the end star in the big dipper's handle) - offset just slightly from a perfect line between them.
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Chris M., aka "First Sight"
Orion XT12i Dob with Moonlite CR-2 focuser
TeleVue NP-101 refractor
WO Megrez 90 refractor
UniStar Light mount
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