Andromeda For The First Time This Year

[Refractordude]

Just got back in from one of my dark sites. My new 6" refractor showed a great improvement in light grasp compared to my 4.7" refractor. M81 and M82 were brighter. The Pinwheel galaxy was a ghost, if it is what I was looking at. Maybe it was NGC5744. Moved past Alkaid straight to M51. I could see the actual shape of M51. It was not bright, but I did not have to use averted vision to barely see half the structure this time. I even noticed a few nuggets of dim lights in M51. With the 4.7" refractor M20 showed just a hint of nebulous with averted vision. With the 6" refrarctor I could directly see nebulous and canyons of stars. Just before leaving/2:00am I spotted M31. It was low but great observing it with my 20x80 binoculars. Using my cheapo Svbony 40mm plossl caused M110 to pop out a little brighter. Was looking for M33, but could not find it. Perhaps it was below the trees. This 6" refractor rocks. Could have did a better write up but I am tired. Thanks for reading.

[Buckethead 2.0]

Just got back in from one of my dark sites. My new 6" refractor showed a great improvement in light grasp compared to my 4.7" refractor. M81 and M82 were brighter. The Pinwheel galaxy was a ghost, if it is what I was looking at. Maybe it was NGC5744. Moved past Alkaid straight to M51. I could see the actual shape of M51. It was not bright, but I did not have to use averted vision to barely see half the structure this time. I even noticed a few nuggets of dim lights in M51. With the 4.7" refractor M20 showed just a hint of nebulous with averted vision. With the 6" refrarctor I could directly see nebulous and canyons of stars. Just before leaving/2:00am I spotted M31. It was low but great observing it with my 20x80 binoculars. Using my cheapo Svbony 40mm plossl caused M110 to pop out a little brighter. Was looking for M33, but could not find it. Perhaps it was below the trees. This 6" refractor rocks. Could have did a better write up but I am tired. Thanks for reading.

Great report, you did fine RD. That is great to hear the 6" refractor is performing so well.

[terrynak]

Good to hear that the 6" is a noticeable improvement over the 4.7" in terms of DSO viewing!

Looking forward to getting my 6" Newts out to a dark site; they've never been away from home...

[Bigzmey]

Well done RD! 6" frac is a powerful instrument, thousands of targets will be accessible to you from a reasonably dark site.

[helicon]

Thanks for the report. I love my 6" Achromat when observing starfields and wide-field objects, pinpoint lights up there.