wow thats faint
No moon. ULTRA clear night (Much better than average)
I detected a very very vague "enlongated smudge" in averted vision
CONFIRMED definitely spotted
after about 10 minutes I was able to confirm its not my imagination lol
should it even be possible to detect m51 with a 80mm refractor in
At first I used my 40mm plossl to find the "triangle" of stars
Added a barlow to it. I saw a very very dim enlongated smudge. in averted vision only. Not visible with direct vision at all.
I had to look almost half the field of view away from it for it to appear. and it only flickered in and out of existence about once every other second or so.
then switched to my 6mm eyepiece
it was a bigger dim fuzzy enlongated smudge.
but I think the core looked a tiny bit more distinctive. I was able to detect its orientation from the enlongated shape. one "half" of the smudge was a tiny bit larger in size. with a barely noticable "fuzzy dot" in it.
but it was almost completely imperceptible. right on the edge of not being visible at all.
How is orion nebula simultaneously just a dim blurry fuzz.
yet I can detect m51 in the same sky? I'm so confused!
It doesnt matter what filter I try to use on orion nebula. none of my UHC O3 or H-B filters seem to do much.
The UHC and O3 do something but its very subtle. the background is about half the brightness. (Not enough for orion to look significantly higher contrast)
better than no filter. but all about the same.
orion is just a dull dim glowy fuzz just the central core visible.
Even trying to detect the "wings" of orion nebula is a fools errand. barely even perceptible in averted vision.