Nebulas and Galaxies

YYZ

Hi all, just wondering how feasible it might be for me to locate some nebulas and galaxies with my telescope (it's a 6 inch dobsonian). I live in the suburban part of Cork city, there are street lights and lights from houses everywhere, not as bad as if I was living in the city center but nevertheless light pollution is a problem. Also, can anyone give me any tips for finding objects in the night sky? So far the only objects I can find are Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, other than that I'm lost. I use Stellarium but I'm still confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

muskyj

YYZ wrote: »

Hi all, just wondering how feasible it might be for me to locate some nebulas and galaxies with my telescope (it's a 6 inch dobsonian). I live in the suburban part of Cork city, there are street lights and lights from houses everywhere, not as bad as if I was living in the city center but nevertheless light pollution is a problem. Also, can anyone give me any tips for finding objects in the night sky? So far the only objects I can find are Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, other than that I'm lost. I use Stellarium but I'm still confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

you can definitely see some galaxies and nebulae with that scope but the very nature of those objects(faint and fuzzy) means that you will have to familiarise yourself with the night sky to find them. I would start with the Andromeda galaxy as it is relatively bright and easy to find. it will also give you a real sense of what you will actually see as opposed to what you see in photos. learn how to star hop (picking a bright star and jumping to fainter and fainter stars until you reach the object you want to view). it will take some patience but with practice you will get there. personally I would go about this with a pair of binoculars first as it is much easier and you can still see the andromeda galaxy with them.

YYZ

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of buying a binoculars anyway since they can also be used for terrestrial objects and if I get really sick of the light pollution I'll have something easy to carry that I can bring somewhere dark. What you with your own telescope never compares to what Nasa can produce, but you can still see a lot, my telescope allows me to see the rings of Saturn, and the moons of Jupiter, and I couldn't believe the amount of detail on the Moon. I hope it's clear tonight so I can practice star hopping.

mickmackey1

Light pollution is a curse I'm afraid, even though you can see some of the brighter objects there's no comparison with looking at those same objects against the inky blackness of a rural sky.

At this time of year the Summer Triangle, consisting of the three bright stars Vega, Deneb and Altair, will be rising in the east after dark. The Plough is virtually overhead and points in the direction of very bright Arcturus; the 'W' shape of Cassiopeia is easily found towards the north with bright star Capella to the left. And then later in the night facing south towards the glorious constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius, full of nebulae and clusters but requiring a dark sky I'm afraid!

Stellarium is a fantastic program, and there are also apps available where you can point your phone at the sky and a corresponding map appears on the screen.

YYZ

I'll probably be taking off to West Cork for a week or two later in the year, hopefully I'll be able to see more of the night sky down there. I'm still managing to find more things to look at though, on the moon I've seen both the site where Apollo 11 landed and the Tycho crater, and I've seen Beta Scorpii (a double star with both stars visible).