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Second night observing with my C6 SCT

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#1 watchthestars

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Posted 01 June 2022 - 02:28 AM

Just getting started with astronomy.

I finally got a break and 2 to 3 hours of clear sky (besides the town lights :)). I could tell it was a decent night as the university observatory 2 miles away had its green laser up and running all night.

My first night out 10 days ago, I focused on what I could see from my small field of view in the backyard. Leo was easy to spot and I focused on finding M66. I could barely see it but now I have learned where to find it so that's something (my favorite thing so far isn't so much the views in the SCT, it's the hunt to find objects and remember each path)... That night, I only used my EQ35 manually.

 

Tonight, I decided to try polar alignment first. I think I got it ok, just ok, as 2 hours later, polaris had moved away from the circles a bit. But the tracking was pleasant for visual observing. Something weird happened with the synscan. I tried to adjust my lat/lon from 41.44 and 111.48 to 41.73 and 111.80. Synscan would not validate the new values. It didn't like the ".73" and ".80". No idea... if someone knows, feel free to let me know

Anyway, tonight, ursa major was almost straight up so I figure there would be something to learn and hunt around it. First was M51. It took me some time to find the most practical way to it, but it worked. It was pretty faint with my 25mm plossl and I could see (very faint) both M51 and NGC 5195 in my 12mm unbranded plossl. I was happy, I had found a new galaxy :).

Next I decided to go visit Mizar and Alcor, which I knew nothing about until I zoomed on them in Stellarium. They looked interesting so I went there. I could see very the double star in Mizar. I realized then that another galaxy wasn't far away, M101. Magnitude was slightly better than M51, so I thought it should be visible. The path through 81, 83, 84, 86 ursae majoris seemed obvious. From 86, a three star line would give me a visual to locate M101 on the opposite side of 86. Well... I looked and looked again. Nothing, not even a tiny bit of a faint object. I'm not sure I understand since I could see M51 earlier (I even went back there 3 times for the fun of it). Any idea?

Anyway, pretty good night without Netflix or rain! :)

Next time I'd like to do star alignment. I tried the first star tonight but synscan kept giving me stars to low on the horizon (I'm in Utah, with some mountains toward the East) or obstructed by trees. Not sure I'll be able to that from the backyard...

Ben


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#2 watchthestars

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Posted 01 June 2022 - 02:39 AM

I found the answer to my invisible M101: magnitude vs surface brightness.... 


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#3 dcornelis

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Posted 01 June 2022 - 02:39 AM

M101, is so much larger and with its faint total magnitude spreading the light so thin it is a lot more difficult to see at the same magnification as M51, it needs a fairly dark sky and you lowest of low magnifications. You should have gone for M81 and m82 also, they will pop like M51.

I can tell you had fun.



#4 Rustler46

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Posted 01 June 2022 - 02:46 AM

You've gotten a good start, Ben. You are on your way now - enjoy the trip. M101 is hard because it is larger with low surface brightness. But it's there if the sky is dark enough to see it. Give a try on galaxies M81 & M82. They are bright and in the same low power  field of view.

 

Best Regards,

Russ


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#5 watchthestars

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Posted 01 June 2022 - 08:34 AM

Thanks both of you. M82 and 81 are now on my list for the next observation. 



#6 Mossonarock

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Posted 02 June 2022 - 10:41 AM

Try the Virgo Cluster. Lots of easy to find/see galaxies there. Just point the telescope in that general vicinity and start scanning.

Also, look for M13 - the Hercules globular star cluster.



#7 spereira

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Posted 02 June 2022 - 11:09 AM

Moving to Deep Sky Observing.

 

smp



#8 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 02 June 2022 - 06:22 PM

M101 has the worst surface brightness figure of all the Messier galaxies.

 

M94 and M104 are two more galaxies that are fairly easy to see, even under less-than-dark skies.



#9 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 02 June 2022 - 06:25 PM

Here are a few of the DSO lists from my List of Lists:
 

https://www.messier-...er-object-list/ (the Messier Catalogue)
 

http://messier.seds....r/sac110bn.html (the SAC's Best Objects in the NGC list)
 

https://www.messier....r/rasc-ngc.html (The RASC's Finest N.G.C. Objects List of 110 objects by season)
 

http://www.tyler.net...pot/saa100.html (the sci.astro.amateur 100 list)
 

https://sites.google.../eye-candy-list (the TAC Eye Candy List)
 

http://www.ocrasc.ca...l Splendor.html (The All Splendours, No Fuzzies Observing List of 160 objects)
 

http://www.taas.org/...00/taas200.html (the TAAS 200 list)
 

http://www.covington...iles/index.html (Michael Covington's Celestial Objects for Modern Telescopes list of 200 objects)



#10 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 02 June 2022 - 06:30 PM

The following are some of the top ten DSO lists from my Celestial Calendar.

https://www.cloudyni...lestial-events/

 

Top ten deep-sky objects for April: M65, M66, M95, M96, M97, M105, M108, NGC 3115, NGC 3242, NGC 3628

The objects listed above are located between 10:00 and 12:00 hours of right ascension.

 

Top ten deep-sky objects for May: M3, M51, M63, M64, M83, M87, M104, M106, NGC 4449, NGC 4565

The objects listed above are located between 12:00 and 14:00 hours of right ascension.

 

Top ten deep-sky objects for June: M5, M101, M102, NGC 5566, NGC 5585, NGC 5689, NGC 5746, NGC 5813, NGC 5838, NGC 5907

The objects listed above are located between 14:00 and 16:00 hours of right ascension.

 

Top ten deep-sky objects for July: M4, M6, M7, M10, M12, M13, M92, NGC 6210, NGC 6231, NGC 6543

The objects listed above are located between 16:00 and 18:00 hours of right ascension.

 

Top ten deep-sky objects for August: M8, M11, M16, M17, M20, M22, M24, M27, M55, M57

The objects listed above are located between 18:00 and 20:00 hours of right ascension.

 

Top ten deep-sky objects for September: IC 1396, M2, M15, M30, NGC 6888, NGC 6946, NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NGC 7000, NGC 7009

The objects listed above are located between 20:00 and 22:00 hours of right ascension.



#11 watchthestars

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Posted 03 June 2022 - 04:04 PM

Thank you Dave!



#12 CA'nCACalvin

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Posted 04 June 2022 - 12:11 AM

Hello,

    I'm at 40.10 myself. It's the time of year that M101 is about as close as overhead as it will be for our locations. I would believe it being at that position in the sky late in the evening after dark this time of year will be helpful with seeing if you have a reasonably dark sky.  When I got back into astronomy a few years back and started searching for DSOs, this one took me a few tries to locate but now I know exactly where it is and some times have a problem seeing it even with the rather dark night skies I'm fortunate to live under.  It does sound as though you were looking where you should be looking.

  I do wonder, and maybe others experienced with SCTs similar in size to yours, know if it will be able to give you a good view of M101.  I've never used a SCT but I do have an Orion 127mm Maksutov-Cassegrain which I have tried looking at DSOs with and not had great results.  Yes there different types of scopes but similar in aperture but not focal length (I think?). I'm curious to know myself how SCTs of this size do on something as the M101 because I'm looking to get one myself.  With my 8" and 10" Dobs, on a good night, I can crank up the magnification on M101 but still not make out any details.  On a great night, with moderate magnification and averted vision, I can barely make out some form to the arms even when I'm easily able to locate it easily with a pair of binoculars.  It takes some pretty poor seeing at my location to not see M101 in my Dobs but my 127 Mak-Cass can barely show DSOs and some are not viewable at all.

    Any how, follow the advice of the above posts and look at M81 and M82 in the evening this time of year before they get to far around the sky to find easily.

Thanks and keep having a good time searching,

Calvin.




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