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Re: (IAAC) Fellow Orion user
Hi Brad,
Nice to meet you.
I would have to say that light pollution has EVERYTHING to do with the
reason you cannot find the fainter objects you are looking for. I would
recommend you locate your local astro club, which you can find by searching
the Astronomy Magazine Website. They more than likely have a dark-sky site
where they observe. They usually have set observing sessions, and you can
probably pop in one night. You would want to find a place with at least a
limiting magnitude of 5.0 or better and a good clear horizon line. M81 and
82 should be easy to find under dark skies. I assume you also have a Telrad?
You HAVE to have one or you will not be able to find anything. Also, make
sure you are searching for these faint fuzzies under moonless skies!
I am going to email you separately a text file I have on eradicating street
lights temporarily.
Maybe you can use this method, it works great for me. My area is currently
surburban, but I did live in a rural area and could pick out fainter
clusters and galaxies quite easily. Galaxies have low surface brightness and
except for the brightest and biggest, can be easy to miss. Why not shoot
for some brighter Messier objects first? The summer sky has a wealth of
star clouds, nebulae, and bright globular clusters as well as some of the
most beautiful open clusters in the universe.
Clear skies and keep us posted!
Penny