Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums
Privacy Policy |
Please read our Terms
of Service | Signup and
Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu.... uh, User
mrkube
member
Reged: 04/30/08
Posts: 31
Loc: Eastern PA
|
|
Hi,
I'm still very new to this hobby, and I'm not sure if what I saw the other night was Andromeda. I have a Z10, and in the 32mm ep what I think is Andromeda was a white blur slightly rounded off. Keep in mind this is from suburban skies, and so is this typical. I was thinking that perhaps a wider FOV would show more as I've read this galaxy is easy to see in binos. So could my FOV be too tight?
Thanks
|
Southerner
sage
Reged: 08/15/07
Posts: 235
Loc: North Alabama
|
|
the bright core of this galaxy easily jumps out, but to really see the full extent you will need dark skies, or transparency, but really probably both. If you are unsure, look for the two companion galaxies that Messier recorded, they should be visible with no problem. Just my two cents.
--------------------
http://theskywasbruised.blogspot.com/
Canon Rebel dslr
Celestron c80 ED
Orion 8 inch xt
Orion 12 inch xt
Atlas Mount
One Half Breed Hound Dog
Phillips SPC900 WebCam
|
rocco13
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/29/06
Posts: 1544
Loc: Phoenix, Arizona
|
|
Don't know if you'd see both companions...M110 is difficult in suburban skies. But M32 is very easy, and although it's brighter than most people would think, it is small.
--------------------
Rocco
Super C8 (1984 vintage)
Celestron 102 f/5
and a cheap pair of binoculars
|
star drop
Guilty as Charged
Reged: 02/02/08
Posts: 2890
Loc: Cattaraugus Co., NY
|
|
Judging from your description you did see M31. It is visible from a red zone in a 4.25" Astroscan. In your scope one of M31's satellite galaxies, M32, will look like a fuzzy star or an unresolved globular cluster with a pin point nucleus. Another companion, M110, will look like a very faint fuzzy football. A wider apparent field of view eyepiece will show more but it won't be an enormous difference. If you can try to get a look at M31 with a pair of binoculars.
--------------------
Ted
|
ChrisBrowning
newbie
Reged: 04/23/08
Posts: 75
Loc: Jackosnville,FL
|
|
I live fairly close to downtown Jacksonville, and I can see it through 7x50's easy. I actually realized this on accident, that's how apparent the nucleus of M31 is.
--------------------
In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe - Carl Sagan
Member of North East Florida Astronomical Society (NEFAS)
 -Jacksonville,FL
Zhumell 10" Dob-10:1 Dual Speed Crayford Focuser
Meade ETX-60 'Backpack Observatory'
Televue Plossls 8 & 15 mm
Old 2.3x40 Constellation Binos
7x50 Alpen Binos
|
PG Lewis
member
Reged: 09/25/08
Posts: 94
|
|
A couple of the nice things about the Andromeda galaxy are:
1) It's a rather large and bright target
2) It's very easy to verify its position
Even at my red/orange zone location, I can easily find it in my 24mm spotter on a fair night with its high placement in the northern hemisphere right now. With dark adapted eyes I can even make out the smudge of its core naked-eye with averted vision some nights, despite the light pollution here. It helps, of course, to know exactly where to look and check when it's high overhead.
The FOV may have been too tight to take in the full extent of the galaxy but it can still pay off to pan around the area and see what you see. I've found M31 consistently shows me more in my small scope each time I view it. Panning around the region has taught me that I really can see more than just the core of the galaxy. It's subtle, wispy, and takes some concentration (the core wants to grab my eyes) but it's there! I'm finding it to be a great exercise for my observing skills for this very reason.
--------------------
|
zee
super member
Reged: 07/04/07
Posts: 134
Loc: Arizona (varies)
|
|
It takes years of getting slowly better and better to see a lot of detail in DSOs (and I'm not by any means much beyond a beginner myself! I can't yet see many things in my 8-inch that Sue French says she sees in her 4-inch). Dark skies help tremendously--when the moon is gone, I'll be able to see M31's core plain as anything, naked eye. To expand on what the above post said, once you've found the core of M31, you could try this: keep the same eyepiece on and move off the core and sit there and wait. Keep staring. Wait some more. (One can feel silly staring at "nothing" for fifteen minutes, but it'll pay off.) Eventually, if skies are dark enough, you'll start to see more of the galaxy's edges. Once I have a few white wisps, sketching makes me really pay attention. (Since even red light affects my dark adaptation, I look with one eye and close it while I sketch.)
I find that even with my wide angle eyepiece, the core of M31 bleaches out the more subtle details around it. It took me the longest time to find M110 because I wasn't looking far enough away from the core. Then I found it and fully realized how big the whole thing must be.
Every time I take a step up in being able to see more detail in any object, I'm almost always able to "keep" it from there on--unless the seeing or transparency is awful (it seldom is for my skies). It's an odd thing, that--the detail must have always been there, but my eyes and brain have made a shift that is a form of learning. Once learned, I can't seem to forget again.
--------------------
8" Orion classic dob
15x70 Celestron Skymaster
|
mrkube
member
Reged: 04/30/08
Posts: 31
Loc: Eastern PA
|
|
very interesting, thanks for the responses! next time i get out i'll be sure to take my time looking for details
|
|
3 registered and 3 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: matt, Olivier Biot
Print Thread
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Thread views: 256
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
